Patience

In the second week of my new course, we continue our exploration of the attitudinal foundations of mindfulness - the soil from which our practice can grow. This week we turn our attention to the attitude of patience.

So often in life, we find ourselves on our way to the next thing, impatient to get somewhere, instead of truly inhabiting the present moment. Often accompanied by a sense of striving, hurriedness and sometimes irritation, impatience is rarely an ally in achieving a given desired outcome. This you will undoubtedly recognise from your own experience. Furthermore, when we live through the lens of impatience, constantly looking ahead instead of paying attention to our moment-to-moment experience, we forfeit the opportunity to be truly intimate with our lives. This represents a profound loss.

In our asana practice, we can cultivate patience by really paying attention to the transitions between poses - the journey, rather than the destination, and gently but consistently bringing our attention back to the richness of our direct experience. In practice, as in life, there is a real potency to the in-between moments, so often overlooked in our impatience to arrive. So this week, as Rilke so beautifully put it, our practice will be about living the questions, rather than seeking the answers we are not yet ready to receive.

If you’d like to explore the attitudinal foundations further you can find more information about my new eight-week course and my weekly drop-in class here or get in touch with me directly.