How Yoga Can Cultivate Patience

Hi my lovely followers,

It's been almost 3 months as we wait to hear the fate of our fire, smoke and water damaged house. During this time rain and storms could damage the house further as part of the roof (almost half) is not intact.
I’m impressed so far with the structure of the house and its sturdiness. It's still standing. I’m grateful for that. Not to mention many other things. Many houses wouldn’t have faired this well under these circumstances.

But, naive us, thinking we’d know in a month or at least less than 2, what its fate would be.
Refurbishment (and how much): or 
Demolishment (with the offer of a rebuild or cash payout).

In addition, an approximate time line as to when we can move back in.

In the insurance company’s defence:

Our claim is complicated. The house not completely destroyed, but there is a decent amount of damage. It looks habitable at the front. But it is definitely not!
So it is not evident until you go inside the house and see the extent. The removalists and he curtain cleaners were horrified! As we bothered to get some of the curtains professionally cleaned. The ones that didn’t perish and were new. Luckily it was the new ones that survived. Curtains come under contents, like carpet to our horror! FYI incase you are unaware of this. Many are unaware about carpet being contents.
The side of the house is completely visible now that next door has sadly been demolished. See the photos. So it shows more of the damage; and 
The insurance company got inundated with claims. A severe storm in Melbourne in February damaged a lot of houses.
The staff there have been compassionate and kind as well.

This experience has caused me reflect how an effective yoga practice cultivates patience in such times.

In my experience, here’s a few ways how:
Holding a yin pose with tolerable discomfort. This is usually around 3 - 5 minutes on average. So, a decent amount of time. This involves patiently waiting for the teacher to instruct you to come out. Unless you’ve come out already as the pose no longer serves you). Or if you practice at home, waiting for the timer to go off.

Practicing effort and surrender. Known as abhyasa and vairagya. As you use tapas (determination and willpower), to work on getting into a challenging pose. With a patient and persistent mindset that is not attached to the outcome. This applies in the case of the respective pose being suitable for the student. Not contraindicated. Crow pose (bakasana) did this for me. My yoga practice helped of this to help me to believe in myself more. It created this mindset and after weeks of abhyasa and vairagya I got into crow. The residence it created was the purpose not the aesthetics.

We do this through self inquiry (svadhyaya). As you notice adverse thoughts and use the advice of Patanjali in his Sutras and/or other yoga texts. Svadhyaya involves both studying yourself and the philosophy taught in yogic texts. This can involv various modern day’s interpretations.

This patience I have cultivated will help me as a I practice patience after surgery next week. Recovery could take a while. Which means gentler exercise which I struggle with. Typical of someone with ADHD!

Has your yoga practice helped gain patience? I'd love to hear how.

Remember yin is in!

Liz