Patience as Practice

VDM_MOB_Patience-as-Practice-01-PORTRAIT [00:00:00] Hi, and welcome to your Daily Mindfulness. Today, I'm going to talk about patience as a mindfulness practice. So when you think about it, patience is a form of wisdom because it demonstrates that we understand that life has its own rhythm and flow. That each thing happens in its own time. And when we train in mindfulness, we're training in listening to that rhythm, honoring that rhythm, attuning to that rhythm.

You know, we're learning to trust the unfolding flow of life, both within and all around us. And, you know, this is really important because for much of the time when we're going about daily life, it's a bit of a habit for most of us to really push against that rhythm of life. We're often trying to hurry life, to control life, to kind of push it around or manipulate it. Now we're often really pushing forth towards our goals and outcomes, very often missing the journey as we [00:01:00] hurry through our destination or becoming very impatient because we want things to change now. So we often deny and defy the rhythms in our own bodies and minds in the headlong rush of daily living .

So here we can have this habit of trying to force things, but we can't force our wounds to heal our habits, to change our awareness, to grow. We can't force the mind to settle and we cannot force in a peace or fulfillment. We can't force these things really any more than we could force a seedling to sprout a flower to bloom or a caterpillar to emerge. What we can do is provide good conditions for these things to happen. And then just let go and entrust life and trust the unfolding of time to take care of the rest.

You know, Eckhart Tolle says, you know, stress is being here, but wanting to be there. So patience then is the antidote to that because it [00:02:00] returns us to the present moment and to peace and wisdom. So today's invitation. If you notice impatience arising, if you feel like you're pushing towards where you're going or feeling frustrated with something taking too long, just reminding yourself that every single step is part of the journey of your life. Every single moment is precious and worth living.

And let this practice of returning to patience, reconnect you with your oneness, with your true nature, your oneness with the present moment and your oneness with life. So thank you for your practice and your presence here with us. And just inviting you now to settle in for today's meditation.