Strength from Patience
“The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it.” Arnold H. Glasgow, U.S. psychologist
Have you ever noticed how fast folks get grumpy when they have to wait even a few minutes for anything these days? Instant coffee, instant food, instant cash, instant cell phone calls, instant relationships. Patience is not only a virtue; it’s a life extender. Impatient people die earlier than those who can lay back a bit.
Impatience makes our blood pressures rise; releases the stress hormone cortisol — which makes us fat as well; and pushes us into overdrive when we are already spinning our gears. Road rage is fast friends with impatience. So how can we slow down and smell the roses?
Use a few tactics to help you get strength from patience.
1. On hold or sitting on the road: Keep a magazine or newspaper article with you. Good time for a quickie information upload.
2. Imagine the speeder is taking his mother to the emergency room with a suspected heart attack. Imagine the slowpoke in front is eighty and scared.
3. In grocery stores, blatantly read the magazines on their racks and you’ll quickly be offered help. It never fails.
4. In doctors, dentists and other medical offices: Try allowing a fifteen minute wait time margin. That way, you’ll feel everyone is on time and be smiling when you walk into the inner office. Medical and dental staffs really want to help pleasant patients. A plus for your health.
5. At the theater or other “social” lines: Take a tiny notebook – write, play tic tack toe or create a to-do list for tomorrow.
6. Breathe deeply with your abdomen.
7. Multi-task: Instead of waiting for the computer to fire up, start it, turn on the coffeepot, get a glass of cold water (everyone’s dehydrated when they wake up), then check your email.
8. Walk up or down stairs instead of waiting for the elevator. Great exercise. Also makes beautiful legs.
Meditation for the Day
“One moment of patience may ward off great disaster. One moment of impatience may ruin a whole life.” Chinese Proverb
Action for the Day
Each time I feel myself losing patience, I’ll take a deep breath and tell myself “It’s not all about me; it’s not all about me”.
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