World War 3

I woke up to the news that the US  had assassinated a top Iranian general in Iraq, by far the most serious escalation in the US-Iran dispute. Yesterday, the news was full of images from Australian bushfires that had already burnt through 12 million hectares, and floods in Indonesia. Fascism and climate change locked in combat over who can destroy our world faster, welcome to 2019. I have often written on the hopelessness, frustration and anger that comes with living in the time of peak fascism and climate change, but it does feel like a new challenge to one's sense of equanimity comes every day. Just as you feel you have steadied yourself to the latest disaster, a new one comes along. I acknowledge that I am not directly affected by most of these events, cocooned as I am in British academia. But the evens do take a toll, and it takes active effort to compose oneself. The world as we know it exists as much in our minds as the physical reality around us. In the age of hyper-connectedness, we feel every disaster more than we would in the  past. Which is why it is important to try to disconnect from the world in our minds and focus on the physical world around us. Yoga encourages one to focus on the breath, the most fundamental way in which our bodies connect to the world. I have often written before on how the breath represents the union of the mind and the body. I will have to learn to focus on my breath even more in the coming days, weeks, months and years.