DAY 170

practicing patience


Even when I am a persevering person, I steadfast in my aims and I don´t get frustrated easily, which could suggest that I am patient, the true is that patience have two sides, one related to our ability to keep on going no matter the circumstances and other one, which is much more related to the acceptance of life as it is

I don´t know if every person who is good at the first one, is not so good at the second one (and vice versa), or this is only my case, but I´ve been dealing most of my life with my resistance to accept when perseverance haven´t given me any problem at all

Indeed, I´ve had to work hard to learn to tolerate everyday setbacks, which make arise impatience, and the annoyance which often come with it, and prevent me from experiencing a true sense of serenity

This work has allowed me to act more mindfully and mainly, to improve my relationships with other persons and with myself. This happens because when anger is turned off, the demanding attitude turns out tempered, and a wiser and compassionate side of me is enabled to come to light

As usual, this has demanded a regular practice:

Of course, the proverbial advices about this issue, consisting of counting to ten or going to another place, usually work well. When we are impatient is important to step back from ire and hostility, and this is a good way to do it, because we dissociate our impulse from our actions

But it is much better to train ourselves to become less impatient. If we do such thing, we will observe changes in our behavior and as time goes by, the decrease of the triggering circumstances for anger. Therefore, we have to start to do things that call for our patience and keep on trying, till we get better, this is, till we be able to be present while we are doing (if not, it´s a false patience) . It can sound simple or paradoxical, but indeed is a good way to own and transform our difficulties

In my case they are things that help me to deal with my tendency to want life to be different right now and don´t let it develop following its own pace