Practice Patience and Take Control of Your Life
How’s your patience level? Are you cool, calm and collected in the most adverse situation or are you the horn-honking, finger-waving type? Wherever you fall on the patience scale, it’s definitely a character trait worth improving.
Impatience is nothing more than an energy suck. It has the ability to take away your power and will leave you either slightly irritated or, depending on your patience quotient, a raving lunatic. Neither of which alter the circumstance one iota.
Waiting in line at the DMV, stuck in an airport, getting caught behind a chatty cashier; accept the fact that you are powerless and remain in your present emotional state or let uncontrollable behaviors and events dictate your mood. The choice is yours.
If you want to live a happier, healthier and stress-free life, cultivate patience. Become aware of your triggers and make it a goal not to react. When situations arise, take a moment and breathe. Explore your rationale for being upset. Will this inconvenience have a lasting affect on your happiness? (In 99.9 percent of cases the answer is no.)
Then mentally widen your perspective. Is the chatty cashier lonely and attempting to connect? Maybe the distracted driver recently discovered a lump in her breast. Could it possibly be that your slow computer is not out to personally destroy you?
Walk away, join the conversation, laugh it off or react with compassion instead. As you develop patience, you’ll become more tolerant, considerate and kind to your fellow man. And isn’t that what life’s journey is all about? Making a better you?
Don’t expect to develop the noble virtue overnight. All resolutions take time. Work at it a little each day and create a new habit. Your perseverance will be rewarded!
What do you do when circumstances don’t go your way? My slow computer is my Achilles heel; when it refuses to cooperate I stand up and do a little dance! It keeps me from becoming irritated and gives my body a break from sitting. —Karen