Link to the podcast available here: https://soundcloud.com/lvoisen/podcast-340-patience-the-art-of-peaceful-living-with-alan-lokos

Be sure that your responses are adequately thorough and detailed. Some of the answers may just be fill-in the blank while others clearly require more detail and full sentences. It might be helpful to take notes while listening to the podcast in order to appropriately answer the questions below. Keep in mind that the questions are asked in order of the podcast’s progression, making it easier to identify the answer.

Most of the answers to the questions below come directly from the podcast. There are a few questions which are considered “Personal Reflection” questions and are thus indicated as such in parentheses to avoid any confusion.

1.According to the speaker, “we can change so little of what goes on around us, but we have complete control of…” (Fill in the “…”)

2.Describe what the speaker means when he says, “mind is everything.”

3.According to the speaker, what happens when “we learn to be in touch with what is really going on”?

4.Describe what is meant by the statement, “It takes patience to develop patience.”

5.What does the speaker say is required (“as a starting place”) to be mindful? And why is that “not so easy to do”?

6.What is “bare experience” and what causes us to “not be in touch with it”? In other words, what do we typically go to that moves us away from “bare experience”?

7.According to the speaker, when do we “leave actual mindfulness”? And how can we continue to “extend the practice of mindfulness” in those moments?

8.According to the speaker, “mindfulness isn’t about becoming a better person or a spiritual person—mindfulness is about becoming ____.” (Fill in the blank)

9.From your own experience and understanding of mindfulness, how does mindfulness help us become “awake”? (Personal Reflection)

10.Describe the “law of inertia” as it relates to patience and how labeling ourselves can be unhelpful.

11.Have you ever used this sort of label (i.e., “I don’t have patience”) before? What was the problem with doing that from your own experience? Please elaborate. (Personal Reflection)

12.Why are self-statement such as “I’m an impatient person” or “I don’t have patience” “simply untrue” according to the speaker?

13.According to the speaker, what is the “key movement that brings us out of inertia”?

14.What is the first exercise in the speaker’s book that he encourages for beginning the journey to develop more patience?

15.Take some time and think about why you’d like to become more patient and use the space below to write down your response(s). (Personal Reflection)

16.How does this help us deal with the inevitable setbacks we will experience along the way to cultivating more patience?

17.According to the speaker, patience is a _____ _____, so developing patience requires _____ ______.” (Fill in all four blanks)

18.Why is the fact that patience is a mental factor such an “extraordinary gift”?

19.In the context of the discussion around patience and longevity, what does the speaker say about the relationship between illness and stress?