Barack Obama.

Our first ever picture together. Selfies weren’t a thing back in 2008!

“You’re really staying up all night?”

“I have to.”

“You do?”

“He could be the first Black president of the United States. I’ve got to watch this.”

It was 2008. I had been dating this gorgeous guy for only three months, and his passion for politics had become very clear.

So we pulled out the sofa bed in front of the TV in his one-and-a-half-bed flat in North London and settled in to stay up all night, watching history in the making.

At 4am, I was jolted awake by Dominic’s shouts of joy as Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States.

We hugged and cried, and I found myself falling deeper in love with my sparkly new boyfriend as I witnessed him fill with hope and wonder for the future.

Fast-forward eighteen years and with fifteen years of marriage under our belts, for Dominic’s birthday, I got us tickets to see Obama live in Manchester this week.

As we all know, the future didn’t play out quite the way those two twenty-somethings imagined. Obama tried his best, but the world chose a different direction.

But hope lives on. Being in the presence of his calmness, steadiness and honesty was a powerful reminder to be better, to come together, to be united.

Obama spoke about how democracy isn’t our default mode as humans. We are wired to fear the stranger, to protect our tribe, to hoard and take more than we need.

But we can override that programming if we make the effort. If we stay awake.

As history shows, democracy is not the easy option. Humanity has lived through far more centuries of Dominators and the Dominated. The worst of times.

Let’s not slip back into that easy mode of being human and then live to regret it.

So this week, my guru was a former president, because staying awake is exactly what yoga asks of us. Noticing our automatic patterns, and choosing differently.

So I will head to my yoga mat as often as I can, to break the mould we have all been cast in.

I also, hold onto hope, just as I did in the early hours of that morning all those years ago. Hope for a kinder, better world, and hope that the love by my side would stay there.

One of those dreams came true, so I’m not giving up on the other.

Some things are worth staying awake for.

Thank you for being here. Sending love and kindness.

Laura x

P.S The photo is the first ever photo of us taken together. Selfies weren't a thing in 2008! x