Patience Meditation

Hi,

This is Addie D.

Hilster,

And this will be a mindful meditation exploring patience.

So find a posture that will support you for the next 10 minutes or so.

It can be seated in a chair,

Could be seated on the floor if that's comfortable,

And it could also be lying down.

And as you settle in,

Feel the parts of the body that are touching the solid support of ground or chair or cushion,

And let your weight drop into gravity.

Feel yourself here.

Relaxing the shoulders,

The jaw,

The eyes,

Softening anywhere you can that you notice unnecessary tension.

And then starting to let yourself notice the breath.

The breath is already happening.

And you feel that it's flowing in and out.

And it doesn't need to be any particular kind of breath,

Any particular depth or shape.

This breath is giving you life,

However it's showing up right now.

And can you let your attention relax into this connection with the breath?

Realizing how the breath flows in and it creates a sense of swell and expansion and growth.

And then at the top of the inhale,

The breath kind of crests and it becomes an exhale,

A sense of flowing outward or maybe the body kind of falling back in towards the center.

Taking a few cycles of breath to experience this in just the way that it's showing up in your body today.

And to pay attention to something so simple actually requires a lot of patience.

So our meditation practice itself cultivates this quality and capacity,

This wisdom capacity of patience.

We can practice this even a little more clearly by following the exhale all the way to the end.

See if you can let your mind stay with the out breath all the way to the end where it sort of tapers out,

Becomes wispy.

There might even be a little still point pause at the end.

And then just allowing the next in breath to come in on its own.

Can you let the in breath take care of itself,

Letting it emerge out of that stillness at the end of the exhale.

So following the out breath,

Feeling into it as it flows out,

Being patient and watching and waiting as it tapers off.

Maybe there's a pause.

Maybe there's a moment of waiting and watching.

And then we feel that next inhale flow in.

The cycle continues.

And if this feels a little edgy to let the breath breathe itself in this way and to wait for the next inhale to come in without making it happen,

That's pretty normal.

Can you be patient with yourself?

Feeling willing to try again on the next breath.

Just step back and watch the out breath flow.

So not really do anything,

But observe and trust that the next moment,

The breath will take care of itself.

This cultivates patience.

We can start to see what patience feels like on this visceral level and what our resistance to patience feels like on this visceral level.

Good,

Let's go to sees Now if you found you've gotten a little bit lost in the silence or a little bit tangled up in the breath,

Then see if you can practice patience in this way.

A feeling into the body where there might be tension,

Where there might be gripping,

Maybe the eyes,

Maybe the hands or the shoulders or the diaphragm or the jaw,

Anywhere that you feel that,

See if you can just invite it to soften.

May not happen all at once,

But we can give that permission.

Being patient in the body,

Being patient with ourselves as we explore this wisdom quality,

This way of being steady with time,

Nonreactive about time.

1 2 Patience is an apathy.

It doesn't mean that we give up or we don't care.

It just means letting go of the timelines,

Letting go of some control.

Being present with what is,

With non-reactivity,

With the experience that in this very simple direct way through the breath.

Following the exhales all the way through the breath,

All the way through the mouth.

So just being present with what is,

With non-reactivity.

Following the exhales all the way to the end.

Allowing for that tapering,

That pause,

That space.

Present as the next moment,

The next in-breath emerges.

And then softening towards ourselves with patience.

When we get lost,

When we get stuck,

When we need to start again.

Thank you very much for your presence and your practice.

Thank you.