Ever been told to sit down and be patient? I have. I was meditating recently. Asking the Universe for the answers to the typical questions we all have; purpose on this rock, what lessons are to come, grading performance on lessons past, etc. My answer came as a clear and unambiguous single word: Patience. That was it, the Universe told me to sit down and be patient! Really?!?
I am here to tell you right now, PATIENCE SUCKS. I need to force the situation, make it happen. I am not about to just sit down and wait. Wait for what? Wait for the Universe to take its own sweet time to answer my questions?? What happened to we are all one in the same? Where’s the love? Is the Universe simply too busy or perhaps She doesn’t know the answer? Either way, I was not happy with the response.
This is not the first time I have been treated this poorly. My wife says I have shpilkes. It’s a Yiddish word that loosely translates to “ants in the pants”. Can’t sit still. Any number of my grade school teachers noticed the same thing. It doesn’t mean they were right, of course, but there does seem to be a pattern…
I had no choice really. The Universe told me to sit down, be patient and see what happens. I did. In time the explanation came and it was not what I expected.
To be patient is to be present. To live in the now. Impatience is bred by attempting to live in the future. I was “antsy” because I was anticipating what was about to happen, always trying to shape the future to what I wanted. Trying to live in the future clearly created frustration, but more importantly, it robbed me of the experience of living. I was too busy trying to create my next experience to fully participate in the experience I was having. To make matters worse, the NOW is truly all there is. The past and the future do not exist. The past has, well, past and the future is yet to come. The now is all we have.
Cutting off the monkey mind and allowing your higher self to show you the now will enrich your life experience in countless ways. Do not cheat yourself of experiencing the now by trying to get to some future experience that may or may not come to you. To be patient is simply to focus all your energy and attention on the now that is before you, nothing else exist.
Try it on the mat in your next class. Don’t try to anticipate the next pose or the number of breathes the teacher is counting out. Let the ants fall to the ground. Be in the now, be in the pose. Explore it fully, feel the prana as it flows through your body and experience how the energy flow changes with the slightest change in your pose. Notice which muscles activate and how your balance changes when you become the pose instead of mentally moving forward to the next transition and pose.
Transform your yoga practice and your life by simply being patient. Be in the now. You have all the time you need to live, so be selfish and take every possible moment to explore living. No reason to rush, the future will wait for you.
Now we are doing yoga…
Namaste
Blair is the co-owner of Yoga Daily in Mt. Pleasant, SC. He is a certified yoga instructor, recovering lawyer and a spiritual student. The content of this blog is what Blair considers to be universal truths that span all dogma and religion and it is offered to you in Love and Light. Check out The Daily Yogi for additional blog entries. You can contact Blair at [email protected]. Yoga is but one path to the knowing that we are all one. Please take what resonates with you and leave the rest without judgement or offense.