The virtue of patience

Two main areas where patience is required: waiting for things to happen and in your personal development – as in patience with yourself when you’re learning something new (or something old that’s taking you a long time).

In the first instance, were you to allow yourself fullfilment in the moment regardless of external conditions, it wouldn’t matter to you when things you wanted manifested, as you’d know that all manifestations are merely symptomatic of the Tao throwing shapes, and not to be regarded as the source of anything more than amusement, certainly not as the source of fullfilment.

Hence you wouldn’t need patience: you wouldn’t be waiting and deferring your fullfilment till such or such happened, you’d be living it and loving it as it already was.

In the second instance, were you to know yourself as perfect already, including all your flaws, imbalances and peccadilloes, you’d not feel the pressure to develop and could thus allow it to happen in its own time with but gentle pressure on the rudder and so would not need patience with yourself.

Both instances imply a repositioning in respect of attaining results. You already have the result or results: you’re here. Everything else is just entertainment of various sorts.

That’s the background theory a la Taoism

And now for a technique to induce a patient state, impatience, though essentially illusory, affects the body by producing stress. It does so by interrupting the natural flow of breathing and by tensing the muscles and soft tissue especially around the upper belly and chest, leading to tensing at the back of the neck and into the shoulders, thence spreading to all parts. This constricts the vital organs and the flow of blood, fluids and chi, which then further exacerbates the stress and so causes the impatience to grow.

The trick is two-fold: subdue the fire of impatience by pressing down on the notch at the base of the throat in the centre of the upper ridge of the breastbone and intervene with the breathing while doing so, specifically, to stop holding the breath, slow it right down, equalize the duration of inhalation and exhalation and allow the belly to swell to accommodate the inhalation, then flattening it to exhale – for nine breaths.

After this your patience will be unshakable, even in the face of the worst time wasters.

I wish you the most beautiful day of breathing you’ve ever had.

Love, B