Wanda Paul
We live in a fast paced world where everything is readily available. Drive thru restaurants, banks, car washes, dry cleaners and even drive thru pharmacies where prescriptions can be filled or dropped off. Yet we're expected to be patient when waiting in long lines. All of these things are offered as a way of providing convenience but it comes at a price, our patience is sacrificed.
Developing patience in an environment where everything around you says that you should hurry is a difficult task . Added to our already overloaded world of convenience, technology has exploded on the scene and with it high speed capabilities. With the click of a mouse messages can be sent around the world. This further complicates the concept that patience is a virtue.
What this adage fails to mention is that patience is also a skill that is cultivated over time. Impatience seems to be a natural reaction when control of a situation is lost. Patience implores you to take it slowly, think rationally and allow yourself to get to a place of peace. All things that are contradictory to our fast paced society. However, blowing your cool isn't going to make the line move faster or your order appear any quicker, it only further frustrates you and leaves you on edge.
The good news is there's a solution at hand. The key is to develop a few techniques that may be helpful in your approach to patience:
- Let go of the impulse to be impatient by determining what your triggers are, starting with the smallest one first and working on it.
- Relax your mind.
- Allow your body to settle into the moment; this will relieve the tension you feel in an impatient state.
- Counting, it really does work.
- Remember, that things take time.
When I find myself becoming impatient I find ways to relieve myself of the frustration that follows by taking a time out, meditating or doing something I enjoy. This helps to put everything into prospective and to remember what's important.
Although you may not be able to control the situation you can control your reaction to it. In the long run, better to wait and be patient than hurried and frustrated.
Well written! It has been said that patience is a virtue,. The "click-it" generation doesn't seem to be very virtuous.
ReplyDeleteThis is true! Thanks!
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