Cultivating Patience
3 Tips For Becoming Patient When You Can’t Wait Any Longer
Patience is something you choose to cultivate just to see how your life changes
1. Think of The Cost of Your Impatience
Impatience has consequences. Mistakes happen. Accidents happen. Unions are broken. When you are co-creating with the universe, impatience creates resistance that blocks the thing you are trying to manifest. You end up pushing the thing you want further away.
Personally, being patient is something I have struggled with. Due to my impatience, my inability to wait, and my desire to control things, I’ve ended up ruining certain things. Things that would have blossomed beautifully if I let it.
Maybe you also hate waiting and you realize it's blocking your manifestations, and it's time to learn to be patient. Besides, patience is a virtue.
Maybe for you, bad things have happened because of your impatience. You rushed and made the wrong choice. You lost your temper and said the wrong things. Maybe you rushed into something and you feel stuck. Maybe you now know the cost of your impatience and you want to work on it.
To tame your impatient beast is to notice the triggers before getting triggered.
My trigger is being reminded that I'm not getting any younger and I'm running out of time and quickly changing that thought. I have plenty of time. If you want to be someday married and seeing another invitation of a friend getting married triggers you, quickly change that thought and the feeling. It's their turn to get married. It's a happy moment. If your children are the triggers, show them compassion as they learn. Teach them. Triggers are messengers. They point you to the things that need to be addressed.
Sometimes the universe searches your heart and examines your mind through the test of patience.
2. Think About How Easier Life Would Be if You Didn’t Mind Waiting a Bit Longer
When you know the cost of your impatience, you naturally want to do better so you can get better results. When you are patient during a manifestation, you create no resistance and therefore allow things to flow easily. Co-creating with the universe becomes effortless when you play your part and allow the universe to play its part.
Think about how better you could feel if you're not always losing your cool.
Identify the triggers and address them individually. Get to the bottom of it and when you do, those triggers will no longer hold power. Recognize when you’re starting to feel agitated and identify what emotion is causing you to feel that way. Are you mad you can’t get home faster? Are you sad that the relationship didn’t work out? Are you feeling bad? If you can’t calm down, focus on your breathing. Breathe in and exhale the frustrations out. Count to 10. Repeat affirmations that calm you. “Everything is going to work out.” Keep repeating, keep counting, and keep breathing.
Change your thinking about the situation.
Life is painful when you are impatient. You must be patient and wait for the right people to come. You must be patient and wait for a call with important news. You must be patient and wait to see what happens with the stock market. You must be patient and wait in line at the post office again!
Waiting is a pain, but sometimes we get so upset over little things that won't even matter the next day. What if you have to wait five minutes in line? What if there’s traffic? What if the agent is taking too long to call you?
If it doesn't hurt to wait, why stress yourself? Why try to control things you have no control over? In the heat of impatience, stop yourself from reacting or responding.
Waiting saves. Sometimes the universe conspires to delay you to save you from something. Delays are sometimes detours in the right direction.
If people trigger your impatience, think differently by putting yourself in their shoes. The bus driver isn't late again on purpose so you are late for work. Maybe the relationship didn’t work out because the other person just isn’t ready?
Life makes you wait and there’s nothing you can do about it. Practice. Especially when you’re about to lose it. Sometimes the universe makes you wait just to test your patience to see where your mind and heart really are.
Triggers are messengers that point you to the things that need to be addressed and healed.
3. Practice Being Patient With Other People
Just like me, my daughter is impatient. I have trouble waiting on others, and she has trouble waiting on her food. She says waiting is hard. I say yeah, waiting is very hard. We both agreed on how hard it is to be patient and we agreed we’d work on becoming more patient together and with each other.
When I'm losing my cool, she reminds me to take a deep breath and count to four. When she’s throwing a tantrum because she must wait till tomorrow to watch TV, I remind her there’s a time and season for everything.
Frustration can build up like steam in a pressure cooker when you are waiting for something very important to you. You must find ways to relieve the pressure. Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Stop what you're doing and take a seat. Slow down. Pray. Meditate. You won't be able to meditate in the heat of a moment, but you can always come back to your center. Meditate throughout your day and you will have no issue with being still.
Take a break and go for a walk. Go get a glass of water. Do something to blow off some steam and clear your mind. Teach this to others. Show them how to return to their center and to the present moment.
Practicing patience with my kid and teaching her in the process makes a challenging thing much more fun. We communicate more intimately about our impatience; we brainstorm ideas on how to get through it and we are patient with each other. I’m cultivating patience and she is learning that patience is needed to live a stress-free life.
You won't become patient overnight but with daily practice, you improve. Go easy on yourself when you find that you still hate waiting. Don’t expect to become unbothered by life overnight. Instead, do something small each day that requires you to be patient.
Patience may not always come naturally, but patience is something that can be practiced and learned. It's something you can choose to cultivate just to see how your life changes. It's something you choose to learn because you are tired of the pain of waiting.
For further reading: