WELCOME TO YOUR YH WEEKLY

I created Yoga House as a space for people to come together and practice Yoga. It’s a community foremost and why I love seeing people having a cup of tea and sharing stories after practice. I am always trying to reduce our carbon footprint and protect this beautiful planet that gives us so much. 
I am vintage obsessed and much of the furniture and decoration of both studios has been sourced second hand. I am always in the local charity shops nearby or at vintage fairs. Where possible we refill and recharge on cleaning products, soaps and batteries. I try to limit the amount of toxins coming into the studios with eco friendly products. 
We only stock high quality brands, like Skimmed Milk who’s leggings are made out of plastic bottles!  
One of the projects we have contributed towards involved planting trees, but there is so much more we can all do together. It’s the smallest changes that can make a big impact.
I am always keen to learn and improve, so if you have any ideas or tips, please share them with me on email – support@yogahouselondon.co.uk 

There are many reasons why we should avoid buying plastic bottled water. The UK uses 13 billion plastic bottles every year and only 7.5 billion are recycled. The remaining 5.5 billion are landfilled, littered or incinerated. These are the sad statistics from a government rapport from 2019. 
For a long time bottled-water companies have tried to convince us that expensive bottled mineral water is better for us with devastating environmental costs and no proven health benefits. 
Most bottled water also comes in soft flexible plastic that contains phthalates, known endocrine disruptors that interfere with the way the body’s hormones work. Furthermore, micro plastics are also found in most of the plastic water bottle brands.
Best solution: buy a good quality water filter and a reusable water bottle ideally of steel or glass and if you buy bottled water ideally in a glass bottle. 

Lockdown hit when I was jobless and homeless. I had a nightmare finding a place to live and when I did months later, I had to find some furniture. Most stores where giving delivery dates of 4-6 months due to Covid, Brexit or the Suez Canal – but my main issue was that I seriously short on funds. 
I was recommended Facebook Market Place and the interior designer exploded out of me. I could not believe what was on there! I got the perfect corner sofa, matching wardrobes, chest of draws and bedside tables, plants, rugs, dining table, pictures, curtains – you name it – I got it. It was amazing. In additional to only paying about a 10th of the cost, I could collect the next day and there was no packaging to depose of afterwards.  
Growing up, my family would keep a sofa until the arms were falling off. Nowadays people change their furniture if it’s out of style or doesn’t go with the wall paper. There is so many great bargains to be had. You can bring a little joy to your home and help the planet.  

I was very lucky to have basically grown up on two wheels, my mum being a keen cyclist (she still goes on 20 mile cycles around Suffolk every week!). However it wasn’t until I met my partner 10 years ago, another keen cyclist, that I got my first London bike. It was a beautiful, but not very functional vintage bike. I remember being completely terrified of the London roads, picking it up in Clapham and suddenly sharing the road with buses, taxis, cars, scooters and everything in-between! Soon learning to navigate the roads however, this overwhelming sense of freedom, of joy, of independence, came into cycling for me. It wasn’t long until I upgraded my beautiful vintage bike for another second hand bike, this time a single speed road bike. With the ability to now whizz around a lot faster, and with my confidence growing, I learnt so much about this city. The streets, the hum of pedestrians, the cycle paths through parks, watching the world go by at my own pace, total bliss! Dare I even say it, fresh air, or what we can call fresh air in London. Instead of feeling tired by my commute, I was starting to feel energised. Plus, there’s no tube delays or train cancellations, if you’re running late, it’s up to you to cycle a little faster, you’re in control. 
However, there was still one thing holding me back, London weather! I was always a fair weather cyclist, enjoying all the dry, warmer months, and heading back to the buses and trains come winter. In 2020 though, when our whole world changed, so did I. I discovered a sense of resilience, cultivated through cold water swimming, in the rain, in the cold, all year round. Ice baths when the pools were closed, cups of tea after with friends when they were open. One of my students shared this phrase with me “We’re not made of sugar” and I remind myself of that when it’s pouring with rain, my shoes are full of water, and I’m whizzing off to teach another class. I haven’t been back on a tube since March 2020 and now cycle around 100km a week!

Until the end of COP (November 12th) you can access a virtual bookcase with 140 books on climate change and sustainability for free:
https://blog.exacteditions.com/cop26-virtual-book-showcase-for-climate-change/