Thursday, July 15, 2010

Oh, Sweet Patience

I've discovered that I'm not a patient person. You'd think being a yogi and all, I would be, but really being a yogi is all about practicing. So I try to practice patience. And I practice, and practice and practice. In fact, my practice these days is Inhale Patience, Exhale Judgement. You'd think with all that practicing it would be working but clearly I have a ways to go.

I've been dealing with a lot of things lately that need extreme patience. Obviously my husband's condition. I want him to walk now. I want my husband back, 100% now. I want to go on bike rides and hikes and adventures with my husband now. Not later. Now. But he can't now. He will later, how much later we don't know, but he will. So, for now, I have to be patient.

I want Lucy Poohead to be friends with Leonard T. Kat, now. I want to see them romping and stomping now. Not later. Now. But it's not time yet. It's been less than 2 weeks and the Poohead is still warming up to this big change in her life. I mean, a walnut size brain can only process so much. So for now, I have to be patient.

I have an intern at work who has no design skills, doesn't follow directions and doesn't pay attention when I'm giving him said directions. I'm trying to be patient with him but seriously, 8 times of telling someone something and they still don't do it correctly, do I have to be patient with that? Well I guess I do, because he's here until the end of the month. And that's part two of this lesson in patience. I want July 30 to come NOW! But July 30 will come when July 30 comes.
So, once again, for now I have to be patient.

I guess part of the problem comes from expectations. We expect things to go a certain way and people to do things right, or more correctly said, the way we would. When they don't, we get upset or angry. And that's not good. Take traffic for example ... I expect that I should be able to get in my car and drive to work with nothing in my way to delay me. But when there's bs traffic, I get impatient and then usually angry. Ha! There's the problem. I should expect there to be lots of obstacles preventing me from getting to work unhindered.

So what's a person to do? Well, practice, practice, practice at being patient. Inhale Patience, Exhale Judgement. I'm going to start a meditation where I take a mudra (hand position) with my middle finger touching my thumb and do the breathing practice, Inhale Patience, Exhale Judgement.

Here are some quotes I found about patience that perhaps I will write down and read everyday:

All human wisdom is summed up in two words - wait and hope.

Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow - that is patience.

Patience is the companion of wisdom.

He that can have Patience, can have what he will.

All good things come to he who waits.

Patience is the ability to idle your motor when you feel like stripping your gears.

Patience is passion tamed.

Patience can't be acquired overnight. It is just like building up a muscle. Every day you need to work on it.

Ok, I get it:) Here's the link where I found these. http://thinkexist.com/quotations/patience/
There's at least 9 pages of them, so it's nice to know I'm not the only one to have ever struggled with cultivating patience.

And hopefully with a little a patience towards myself, I will become a more patient person.

What do you do to be a more patient person?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think separating the minor things from the major things helps. No need to worry or become anxious over little things. Also I think taking a second to look at a situation from someone elses perspective makes you more understanding and patient.