A Short Meditation On Patience With Intense Feelings

Every once in a while, though, I have the patience to simply observe. Not at my own risk and not risking anyone else’s safety or case, but just because there’s enough patience to be with whatever is happening, and not react, not get angry, not hide.

I feel like we need this kind of patience now, in our world. So join me in this short meditation on patience with intense feelings.

Transcript

Taking a comfortable posture that is also upright.

Bringing dignity to your practice.

Taking the breath.

Taking a few deep breaths to settle.

Or if breath is not the most supportive refuge in this moment,

Then the sounds in your environment,

Sounds of your household or sounds outside.

And as you settle into the present moment.

Maybe taking a moment to consider that here you are practicing.

Here we all are together practicing.

Starting to settle down just for a few moments.

Maybe to look at this quality of patience.

And just to have a moment of gratitude toward yourself for getting here to do this work because it's not easy.

And gratitude to yourself as well for the greater intention if your immediate intention is to cultivate a little bit more patience for yourself to think about the benefit that will flow from that.

And maybe some gladness can arise right here just yeah how great to do this work just this small piece this small thing which isn't so small.

And so good.

And then I want to offer one way of practicing with patients right here,

Right now,

Which is to take a moment at the bottom of an out breath.

And to notice how much patience there is waiting for the body to take its next breath.

And to notice how much patience there is waiting for the body to take its next breath.

Assuming that you're not underwater or in outer space where there isn't enough air and you have enough capacity in your lungs right now,

Enough oxygen in your body.

At the bottom of the out breath,

Just notice that there's a measure of patience in that waiting for the next breath.

And this might not be the case if you have a cold or if you have asthma or if you have COVID.

But maybe there's some patience there that you can allow to kind of imprint on your experience and then take with you today.

Thank you.