Guided Meditation: Practicing Patience

The podcast is back this week with another guided meditation! Today, we'll explore the theme of practicing patience. I start with a brief intro about patience, sharing why this wise aspiration is on my mind this week. The meditation follows, starting at about the 6:00 mark. (You can skip ahead if you've heard the intro before, or you just want to go directly to the practice). Most of us will probably admit that we could use more patience in our lives. Patience is similar to equanimity (steadiness), but it tends to be more related to time. To be patient means we struggle less with how things are, or how/when they are happening. When we're feeling patient, we find we can work with things exactly as they're showing up. Last week, I had plenty of opportunities to develop my patience skills, when things didn't go as expected. I was on a meditation retreat at a lovely location - something I had been looking forward to for months - and then I got hit by a stomach bug! I had to practice patience with the situation, with my body, my energy levels, and with the time it took to start feeling better. Being that I was on retreat, I was really able to mindfully observe the cycles of struggling and letting go with the circumstances of the moment. It might not have been the practice I signed up for, but it was still good practice!  In the meditation, we'll tune in to this skillful quality of patience. Through simple, intentional breath awareness, we can learn what patience feels like in the body and build our familiarity and capacity for this wisdom energy. As we practice, we can begin to let go of the attachment to timelines and the desire to be in control...breath by breath. No special equipment is needed for the meditation! Feel free to sit in a chair, on a cushion, or practice lying down. P.S. If you want to explore this theme further, check out Episode 17 of the podcast which was called "Deeper Dive: Patience and Persistence." -- For more links and resources mentioned in this episode, find the show notes at movedtomeditate.yoga/podcast. And, you can sign up for your "Library Card" to access this month's FREE practices in the Moved To Meditate Class Library! Feel free to reach out through my website with your thoughts on this episode. You can also connect with me on Instagram at @addie_movedtomeditate (for mindfulness, movement, yoga, and pictures of PNW nature and my adorable kitty, Mustache).