It's the second A in Aloha in the go from a Hola to Aloha series here at Meditation for Assholes.
This is the Ahonui,
Which means patience.
So I know you probably don't have a lot of patience.
So why don't we just get right on into it.
Take a seat.
Take a breath in.
Hold at the top and exhale.
Take another big deep breath in for a count of three,
Two,
One.
Hold it at the top for one and exhale for four,
Three,
Two,
One.
Good.
Do it again.
Inhale.
Hold and exhale.
All right.
Let's scan our body.
Continue breathing.
You can do that three,
One,
Four count if it's helpful for you or go to your own pattern of breathing.
But you got to inhale and exhale.
Inhale and exhale.
Where in your body do you feel like you're breathing?
Where in your body do you feel this tension?
Are your legs shaking?
Are your teeth grinding?
Your fingers tapping.
Go ahead and send the breath down there.
On the exhale,
Just allow that tension in that part of your body to go away.
Good.
Do that again.
Exhale.
Exhale.
Simply by breathing,
Inhaling and exhaling,
We can gain a little bit of patience.
We're going to go ahead and take that a step further though.
And using our actual breath to develop our patience when we're not in a meditative state.
Your next inhale,
Slowly trace the breath as it comes in through your nostrils.
Does it feel cool?
And then slowly trace it on your exhale through your mouth.
Is that a warmer breath?
Trace it in through your nostrils.
Feel the sensations.
And on the exhale,
Feel the sensations as it escapes your mouth.
Trace the breath again and see what happens to your body.
Does it rise with the inhale?
And fall with the exhale?
Are you sending your breath all the way down to your stomach?
Does your stomach rise and then your chest?
And then do they fall in that order?
Or collectively?
There's no wrong answer here.
We're just paying attention to the breath more closely than we have before.
Tracing the inhale again.
See if you can send it to a different part of your body.
Send it all the way down and see what happens to that part of your body.
And then exhale.
How does the body respond?
And as you're persevering with this breath,
We're reminded that Anu Pui means patience and persevering.
It means having great breath.
So in its simplest form,
This practice of tracing our breath gives us pause and appreciation.
Which we can then apply to tracing our traffic.
People in front of us that are slow.
Or the meditations that go on too long.
Which this one won't do.
So if you want some more pause,
All you have to do is sit.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Trace your breath.
And if you're ready to wrap up,
Go ahead and take a big deep inhale.
Breathing in a sense of gratitude for the break in your day and exhaling.
Just letting go of anything else that's stuck inside.
Inhaling and exhaling once again.
Turn your body side to side.
Roll around a little bit.
Open up your eyes.
One thing you can do to,
In addition to the breathing,
In moments where you're feeling impatient,
Is find something about the person with whom you're being impatient or the situation with whom you're being impatient.
Do a little mental gratitude list for three things about that person or situation.
Counting them out will give you a little bit more pause and a lot more patience.
Ahalo.
