How Al Gore Shocked Me & What He’s Got to do with Yoga

Is Al Gore talking to you?

by Lisa Wade

I turned up to be transformed.

To give my all to Al Gore’s Climate Reality leader’s training program that promised to take me from being a leader to an exceptional leader, all in the name of the environment.

I was expecting slogans, fanfares and maybe a few cheerleaders.

When Al Gore mentioned Ghandi I yawned, yep here comes the cliché machine, tick. Then he spoke of Satyagraha, truth force;

“Ghandi said the greatest power in the world is truth”.

I sat up because I’d just come from a Power Living 500 hour Teacher Training in Bali and I couldn’t believe my ears.

Did Al Gore really just say that? This is leadership I am interested in learning. No clichés, no pom poms, just truth. This is going green Yogi style. That I can do.

400 slides and videos later, I am not going to beat around the bush. In this instance, the truth, well the truth hurts.

No-one likes a bad news bear.

But as yogis, humans and citizens of mother Earth do we turn this truth, the truth of what has been done to the planet, into a force that can help heal the earth? Or at least ensure our survival and thrival?

Instantly I wanted to do something great like organise a rally, a TV show or a radio interview. Let’s go people!

Then I remembered years ago reading the beginning of The Art of War. Of all the Sun Tsu quotes there is one I can never find that speaks to greatness. It says truly great deeds go un-noticed because they are so small that no-one ever knows you have done them but if those deeds were to go undone it would cause true harm.

Small deeds?

Hmmm…

I am also an Earth Hour ambassador and in honour of this I started something I considered quite lame in the scheme of changing the world – I TRY to never use take-away coffee cups or take-away lunch containers and I have become a vegetarian.

If those actions are my truth force and if everyone I know chose one or two of those small deeds themselves then we would make a difference.

We read on the back of cornflake boxes that it is clever to try to change the world but wiser to change ourselves, yet there I was AGAIN, stepping up to be a leader and taking “Acts of leadership” because I wanted to change the world instead of myself.

So here I am, armed with the truth. I can send you 400 slides of facts or I can send you a message. A message of Satyagraha, or truth force. I send this truth force from within. If we change our insides Yogis and do something small, even the smallest tiniest little thing, the world changes too.

This the thing our planet needs and each and every one of us can do that.

Today.

Do the small deed that if left undone could cause great harm.

Oh, and I found that quote I could never find:

“Plan for what is difficult while it is easy, do what is great while it is small. The most difficult things in the world must be done while they are still easy, the greatest things in the world must be done while they are still small. For this reason sages never do what is great, and this is why they can achieve their greatness” ~ The Art of War

Namaste.

About Lisa Wade

Lisa Wade is a yoga teacher from Sydney Australia, she is co-founder of Seva Community Yoga, a group of Yoga teachers in Sydney that take yoga classes for various charities and worthy causes, largely inside Bendigo Bank where Lisa is Head of Community Assets.

Lisa is an Ambassador for Earth Hour and the Climate Reality project and has been a pioneer in the Environmental Investment space in Australia for the last 8 years.

Lisa dedicates her Yoga practice, teaching and assisting to the service of the environment and the community.