What patience feels like

I’ve talked openly about how I noticed one of the primary benefits of meditation in how it improves one’s patience. There’s something about the simple act of breathing and doing it over and over and over again teaches your mind and body to simply “let go.” There are just small moments where you are learning so much wisdom just from the motion of inhaling and exhaling. I’ve also talked about how I realized that the compounding interest is kicking in when my partner verbally acknowledged how she noticed that I am a lot more patient than before and how much it helps her. Yesterday I noticed a new indication of benefits starting to appear is noticing almost in a slow-motion frame that a potential stimulus happened, yet I am behaving more differently than before, and in this weird slow-motion simulation, I have an out-of-body experience where I can see what exactly how the “old” I would respond, and therefore could trigger subsequent reactions. It’s the most bizarre kind of self-awareness that I still have trouble trying to put into words, but I’m just thankful about sticking with meditating for so long.

Onward!