Hello,
Thank you for choosing to join me today to do a meditation on patience,
Which I'm pretty sure is something we could all use more of,
Especially these days.
Patience can be such an elusive thing.
We get frustrated,
We get overwhelmed,
We get tired,
And we forget how to practice patience with ourselves,
With our loved ones,
And with the world at large.
So I hope as we sit here today,
We can cultivate a little more patience that we can then carry with us throughout our day and beyond.
So let's get started.
Find a comfortable position if you haven't already done so.
Ideally seated upright in a chair or sitting on a mat with your hands resting in your lap or by your sides and gently close your eyes.
So take a big deep breath in,
Filling your chest and your belly.
Hold it for a moment at the top and exhale slowly,
Trying to let everything go,
At least for the next few minutes.
And then one more big deep breath in,
Holding for a moment and exhaling,
Softening all parts of your body.
And now that you're a little more relaxed,
You could ask yourself,
What is it that I need in this moment?
How can I care for myself in this moment?
I recently heard patients described as caring slowly in a Dharma talk by the spiritual teacher Vinny Ferraro.
Patience is caring slowly.
What a perfect way to embody the essence of the word patience,
The action patience,
The emotional state of patience and the skill we develop.
You are caring for yourself slowly right now,
Just by taking the time to turn inward and meditate to check in with yourself and maybe get a little closer to that centered person that you seek in meditation to begin peeling away the layers little by little.
No one can journey with you into the depths of your mind.
No one can know exactly how it feels to walk your path.
And that is exactly why we turn inward so we can better understand ourselves and become both the prophet and the disciple of our inner world.
And to do this,
We must be patient,
Patient with the process,
Patient with our practice,
And most certainly,
Patient with ourselves.
Patience as a word is first how we speak to ourselves.
You might ask yourself,
Do I meet myself with understanding,
Acceptance and patience each day?
Do I practice wise speech first with myself and then with everyone I encounter throughout my day?
And do I remember again and again that my words do have power and that I need to choose them wisely to come from a place of compassion rather than anger,
Fear or hurt.
Patience as a word can be defined as tolerance,
Fortitude,
Endurance,
Serenity,
Equanimity,
Understanding and even tenacity.
And aren't these some of the qualities we try to cultivate through mindfulness and meditation?
Patience is also an action.
It's the time you take to help a loved one when you already have so many other things to do.
It's the pause you take to ground yourself where you can breathe,
Relax and then respond wisely.
And that pause allows a simple shift in perception that can lead to tolerance,
Which can give rise to acceptance,
Which can cultivate feelings of peace and ease and even more patience.
Patience is an emotional state as well and we are definitely not born with it.
We come out of the womb kicking and screaming,
Making sure everyone in the room hears our voice and understands what we want and that we want it right now.
There's no waiting,
No pausing to reflect.
Our default state when we enter this world is impatience,
Which can be so powerful and all encompassing.
Impatience is something I struggle with every day.
It's something I have to work on in my practice,
In meditation,
With my loved ones.
And I think one of the reasons I struggle with it so much is because underneath it is my fear of feeling out of control.
But what I've also come to understand is that when we break ourselves open,
When we turn inward,
We can also break through and allow those good feelings like patience,
Tolerance and equanimity to seep in.
As we meditate and practice mindfulness throughout our daily lives,
We might start to see slight changes in how we respond.
We're able to pause and then respond rather than react.
And we begin to build resilience to endure difficult situations that in the past would have brought us to our knees.
Think of the many times you have struggled,
Even fallen on your face,
But then picked yourself up,
Dusted yourself off and continued on.
Somehow you were able to tap into inner strength and you practice patience with yourself.
Nelson Mandela said,
Don't judge me by my successes.
Judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.
And isn't that what growth is?
You fall down,
But you get back up.
And part of it is patience because it isn't passive.
It's something we practice every time we choose to turn inward,
Even when we're confused or scared or feeling hopeless.
But we were able to dig deep down and find a way to give ourselves that helping hand to get back up,
That inner strength,
That acceptance,
That fortitude,
All those things that are patience.
We gave ourselves acceptance and compassion and understanding that we aren't perfect.
But what matters is that we keep trying to practice patience,
Even when we want to implode or explode or run and hide,
That we give ourselves permission to fail,
But continue to pick ourselves up when we do.
I recently read a quote by Ernest Hemingway where he said,
If it's all beautiful,
You can't believe in it.
Things aren't that way.
And I think what he's saying is that the beauty is in imperfection because perfection,
It's not real,
It's impermanent,
And really it's just fake.
And that when we tap into all parts of ourselves and we get more comfortable with showing them to the outer world,
All sides of ourselves,
That's where we begin to grow and connect.
I think that just by showing up here today,
You are caring for yourself slowly.
In fact,
I know it.
You are caring for yourself slowly every time you choose to sit and turn inward.
I'm so honored I could share this time with you today.
I hope that you were able to cultivate a little bit more patience with yourself and that you can carry it on with you throughout your day and beyond.
I hope to sit with you again soon.
Take care.
