Sanity Is Not Out There
Welcome to my missive on the boring dystopia. Now, aren’t we glad to be alive at this time?
A bunch of climate scientists have reported observing the release of methane gas from frozen deposits on the sea floor which, if you know nothing about climate apocalypse, is very high up there in the list of “Oh God We Are Doomed”.
Meanwhile some sort of demagogue-as-“breakfast show presenter” shows outrage about the possibility of potential asylum seekers from The Bahamas (yes) as it was reported that 2 children died with their families crossing the English channel in an attempt to reach safety.
And on TikTok news, a young woman tries to help young people with eating disorders by encouraging them to eat with her on her birthday. A reminder that the mental health crisis affecting young people is so large it would save time to assume EVERY young person is mentally ill. If I had to go through adolescence today, I would certainly not make it through.
In fact, I don’t know how any of us are making it through. All the uncertainty and craziness is enough to drive one up a tree and hold on for dear life.
It’s more important than ever to find ways to stay centred and grounded. The crazier the “outside” world gets, the more we are drawn to it, endlessly “doom scrolling” in hope that someone somewhere will be doing something about it. Like watching an ongoing car crash.
But no one comes, and despair sets in. It’s a vicious circle, and it’s unhelpful.
How do we interrupt it? Find some way to “go inside”. Get quiet. Listen to your heart. Truly listen, hear your own heartbeat. Close your eyes, and lie down. Breathe deeply, and breathe again.
Yes, I’m a yoga teacher and I favour meditation before and after yoga. But before you run away, let me reassure you that:
1) Meditation can be just 5 minutes of sitting with your eyes closed and
2) “Yoga” can be as simple as rolling on the floor for 10 minutes.
Keep it simple, yo! We are going through an apocalypse and “doing it at all” trumps “doing it excellently”. Anything counts, truly anything. Even reading this. Go you!
Just remember to look away from the car crash every now and then. We are not going to find sanity “out there”, not in the human world. If we want to make it through, if we want to really help humanity overcome all the crazy, we need to find sanity within ourselves.
And act from there.
