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February 26, 2007
Patience IS a Virtue
Patience is something that we all struggle with at one time or another during our lives here on this plane of Life. But, for some, patience is a lesson in life that could be well heeded so as to bring about a great change in one's life. But, unfortunately, the people who would most benefit from the lesson that learning patience offers are the same ones who least want it or seek it out.
I'm reminded of a recent incident that I observed of a person's behavior surrounding a situation that took patience to get through. And I'm reminded of one instance where I was directly tested as to how firm I was in my steadfastness with my own level of acceptance of a Life situation that had presented itself to me and challenged my own patience.
Patience is a wonderful quality to master. It truly can bring wonderful Life rewards and outcomes that were not thought possible before. But, the person has to want those outcomes to be a part of the possibility of their life. And most don't.
Why? Well, I believe that patience is something that does quiet the mind. And it quells the constant buzz in the mind and the breaking of the silence in the soul. It also causes the spirit to become more in tune with what the universe has to offer and is always presenting to us every single day we exist as conscious beings.
Many don't want this silence though. They're not willing to go through what it takes to get to a place of peace inside. They want the disturbance to continue in their mind. The disturbance that is supposedly caused by the Life situation that has presented itself in front of them and that they're now a part of and resisting the reality of.
Obviously, patience is the opposite of impatience. And people, most people, the vast majority of people like impatience. They prefer it. They actually seek it out when it first appears. They thrive on it. It's the food for their hungry soul.
It's what gives them a sense of life or feeling alive. It's what gives them the many reasons they have to complain about life and how it is not giving them what they want, when they want it. And they like living their existence that way.
Complaining.
Impatient.
Resisting.
I recall two recent separate incidents, one where I watched a woman in the waiting room of a medical clinic, and the other involving myself. Both of us would've benefited tremendously from massive doses of patience. She as she waited in the waiting room of that medical clinic, and me as I waited in a bad traffic situation. Why? Because the mind was doing everything it could to keep us in a state of constant turmoil and angst over what was (not) transpiring as we awaited our turn through the Life event that was in front of us.
The woman in the medical clinic was sitting in a chair in the waiting room of the medical clinic. She had a magazine on her lap and she would look up every few seconds to glance at a television set mounted high up on the opposite wall of the waiting room. While she was seemingly reading her magazine and extremely rapidly flipping through the pages of the document, she also was shaking her left foot which was dangling from her left leg that was crossed over her right leg. Her left foot was moving like it was on a massive dose of steroids. It was almost a blur it was moving so fast.
So, here this woman was....sitting there, moving her foot rapidly, licking her finger and flipping the pages of the magazine without even reading it, and every few seconds looking up at and then down from the television mounted up near the ceiling on the wall. It was truly a sight to see. A painful one. But, to her advantage, she most likely didn't even know what she was putting herself though. She was not even present in that room enough to realize what was manifesting itself in her body movement, and occurring inside her. That is, how impatient she was and how much she would've benefited from a dose of patience as she waited.
My situation involved me being stuck in traffic on a Phoenix freeway. The speed limit on the freeway was 65 miles per hour. Traffic was so bad though that I was going about two miles per hour. And I had an appointment across town to get to. It truly was a hassle to be in that situation at that time and I found my patience getting severely taxed. So much so that I left the freeway thinking that the surface streets would be better then that automobile standstill I just left.
However, the universe sometimes has a different lesson in store for us, if we only pay attention to what it is attempting to show us. My lesson in patience was not now behind me, it was soon to be in front of me rearing its head again and forcing me to pay it full attention.
I was now stuck in street traffic due to construction on a nearby major road that closed the street down from three lanes to only one lane. And this was during rush hour. And with traffic exiting the overhead freeway from the slowdown it was experiencing. And I had an appointment that I couldn't miss without having outcomes affecting others in my life.
But what I found most interesting was the fact that my mind wanted me to do everything but accept the 'is-ness' of the current situation I was in. It was telling me to 'go around' traffic. Not let others in who were wanting to squeeze in front of me. Do potentially dangerous actions that could even put me at risk of getting hit by other vehicles.
It was an amazing process to be a part of, and watch, as it transpired in my mind. But, I just ignored the voice inside my head, and I sat in traffic and watched what happened outside the car, and what happened inside my mind. How it was trying to trick me into doing something other than just patiently accept the actuality of the situation I was literally stuck in.
Throughout this course of events I watched other drivers who appeared to be exhibiting the compliant behaviors that my mind was prodding me to fulfill. They were cutting others off. Speeding through red lights. Tailgating. Honking horns.
To me, they were in a different world inside their minds. We all shared the same outside Life situation. There truly was nothing we could do about it to change the traffic jam for blocks around. But we were all in different worlds inside our separate vehicles, and in our minds.
Of course it is a natural human reaction to Life to resist what is and then become impatient that Life isn't 'working out' the way we expect/demand it does. But, these Life events are the ones that are left ripe for learning, if we are so inclined to do so.
I've found that it is an amazing and beautiful process to simply accept what is. Patiently. Is it easy? No. The mind wants to control the situation. It wants what it wants and nothing or nobody is going to get in its way or expectations as to when the results need to occur. But reaping the benefits from allowing patience to take over a situation does indeed take practice. Lot's of practice. And frustrating situations. And it'll still get the best of the best of us at the worst of times as Life continues to stream towards us. And we it.
Will anyone else care that you've chosen to reject impatience and resistance to the moment you're stuck in and that now you're patiently waiting for whatever situation you're involved in to transpire? No. No one will care. In fact, no one will even know the virtue of patience that you're living in inside in that moment.
But, you will know. You will be going through life patiently being with what has been offered to you by the universe to learn from. And what would that offering be?
Life.
Patience is a virtue. But first one has to see just how impatient they are before they can see how patient they can be.
Everyone can be patient. This human aspect is not something relegated to the rich and famous only. And goodness knows, we all have so many, many situations that come to us every day. Situations asking us "So, do you want to BE patient or impatient today?"
I would suggest that one patiently consider the question every time it is posed.
Give it time, have patience, and Life will reward you. Every time. Guaranteed.
Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'
(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)
Posted by Andre Best at 3:27 PM | Comments (2)
February 3, 2007
It's A Wonderful Life
Life is a wonderful teacher to those who are willing to learn. It gives us what we need, when we need it, for the reasons that we really need it. Not what we think we want. Not what we think we need. Not what we prefer or desire.
But most people simply don't listen to the words that are silently being spoken to us. In our dreams. In our experiences. In our relations with others. In our communication with the world.
Not the obvious actions. Not what we can see, only. Not what we were told, or heard.
But just what is happening to us. What is being shown to us.
There are so many silent dynamics that are occurring in every one's life that even scientists are only just now beginning to delve into what is and has been working silently beneath the surface of Life for eons now.
But, of course, as the arrogant humans that we are, we think we know better. This author included.
To many, it comes down then to doing, wanting, having, and pursuing.
But those aspects of life are not the way to come into communion with Life itself.
The way into that place is to be open enough to allowing the possibilities to be seen by the watcher.
Seen by you, if you're so receptive to what is existing behind eyesight.
There are so, so many subtle dynamics occurring when even just two people relate to each other. We've all heard about them.
The silent body signals.
The chemistry, whatever that is, between the two people.
Their silent Souls.
Their thoughts and thinking processes.
So much going on, but yet there is something that is occurring at a level that is removed from all this.
Life.
It is working away bringing us mere humans the life experiences that we need to be able to live a full life. The Life we were intend to live on a daily basis.
And it is working ever so hard every single moment of our existence, tapping us on the head waiting patiently for us to hear what it is silently saying to us and efforcing us to 'see'.
Again, through dreams.
Through the subtler dynamics between the relationships we have with others.
Between the life experiences that are brought our way on a daily basis, every moment of the day.
Behind what happens, and what doesn't happen.
But, unfortunately, most are too busy in their head, their mind, their thoughts, their life, to hear and see, and observe, and pay attention to what is happening all around them. All the time.
Why is this of any concern?
Well, I've found that this silent relationship we have with existence is what is speaking to us and yet if we were to only listen to what it is working so hard to tell us, that our life would be very very different from what we have managed to create it to be.
And it would be different in ways that we can't fathom yet. Why? Because they are not part of our existence; otherwise, we would be living them.
Life shows each of us so many things every day.
Life speaks to us volumes every day.
Life wants us to wake up to ourselves, our-self, and see what it is offering us. The Right place to live our existence.
It wants us to see that there is another way to live Life. There is another level that exists beyond the world we live in.
There is a space in the silence that is so full of life, if only we are able to hear it, then we could enter. At any time we so wish.
And, oh how full our life would be. More than we can imagine.
Many spiritual teachers throughout the eons have worked so hard their entire awakened lives to help people understand that the life they are living is not the only life there is.
I believe what they say. I believe what they have experienced.
Is there a way out of human turmoil? I don't think so, except only to minimize it greatly through exposure and awareness.
But there is a way to live one's life such that the experiences that are brought to it, the people that are brought into one's life can be used, in a good way, to learn about the life one is meant to live.
Think about what happens to you during a day. Do you really think that what happens to you is everything that you have worked so hard to create? Think of all those so-called coincidences. Those dreams. Those pains. Those problems.
Do you actually feel responsible for all of that? Of course, we all want to blame the other.
But if each of us would only step back, and realize that everything that happens to us is there in our lives for a reason. The people. The events. The experiences.
And beneath all that are the lessons.
The insights.
The silence.
The silence is speaking volumes to you. Right now.
Do you want to listen to what it has to say?
Do you want to learn to understand what Life is bringing to you for the reason it is bringing it to you?
I know it's a tough thing to do. Many don't want to. This author included, at times.
But, this approach to life is so out of the ordinary that it truly brings one a wonderful Life.
Written by Andre Best
President, Ultimate Results, Inc.
http://www.andrebest.com
'Learn About Life From Another Perspective'
(Author's permission is granted to share this full article with others. Just leave the signature line intact, please.)
Posted by Andre Best at 7:30 AM | Comments (2)