The Power Of Patience And Anxiety Management

The mind often moves faster than life itself. One of the ways to slow the mind is to practice the power of patience. Try to nurture a positive view of the world while cultivating your ability to wait.

Make room for a habit that allows you to let go of your fear, pressure, and worry. This ensures that you let things happen at their own pace and at the right time.

Experts seem to have differing opinions on whether impatience is a learned pattern of behavior or an innate trait that some people exhibit from childhood.

Be that as it may, one thing is clear: our social context fosters this sense of dissatisfaction and makes us want immediate results.

We therefore find it very difficult these days to wait for things. As a result, we constantly feel helpless when we realize that we have no control over some things.

Which comes first: fear or impatience?

We also don’t know whether our impatience leads to fear or whether fear makes us less tolerant of waiting. Nevertheless, we do know that the two are a perfect pair that causes stress and an overactive brain.

They can cause insomnia, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, lack of motivation and of course, sadness.

A simple, yet effective strategy for regulating these emotions is to develop patience. However, it is important to understand that cultivating patience is no easy feat.

That’s because the brain gets used to certain thought patterns. If you introduce your brain to a calmer and more optimistic approach, it will initially offer some resistance. However, it is also not impossible to cultivate patience.

The power of patience for a better quality of life

The result of constant impatience is fear. The combination of the two can be very devastating. They can lead to physical problems such as muscle aches, headaches, heart palpitations or digestive problems.

Impatience is like malware getting installed in your brain. Once installed, it starts to activate cognitive distortion mechanisms.

It starts as soon as you wake up. If it takes too long for the coffee to be ready or the bus that takes you to work is a minute late, you immediately assume that you are having a bad day.

If you can’t finish that project today, you know you’re going to get frustrated and desperate. So impatience is like a poison that distorts your thoughts and your mood.

Albert Ellis, the famous cognitive psychotherapist and proponent of rational emotional behavior therapy, also talked about the effects that uncontrolled anxiety can have. If your fear gets out of hand, it will take over your life. Patience is therefore the ideal approach to help you regain control.

Self-regulation is the key to patience

In January 2018, the University of North Florida at Jacksonville conducted an interesting study on the power of patience. Doctor of philosophy and psychology Dominik Guess was the principal investigator of the study.

The study revealed that patience has more meaning for people in certain cultures because of a very concrete psychological function: self-regulation.

• Self-regulation is above all self-control. In other words, it is the ability that allows you to manage yourself and your reactions to pressure and external events.
• To work on self-regulation, you need to develop the following characteristics:
  • Reflection.
  • Control the emotions.
  • self-control.
  • Assertiveness.
  • Social skills.
  • Tolerance.

Practicing the Four Pillars of Patience

First of all, we need to clarify some ideas about patience. People often misunderstand patience and relate it to passivity, resignation, or the simple ability to wait for something.

To get a clearer picture of what it really entails, it might help to take a look at the mainstays of patience. These are characteristics that you should already develop today:

• Patience is freedom. It is an emotionally liberating practice that teaches you to wait, observe and know when to act.
• Patience is compassion. This aspect of patience involves respecting yourself. Don’t be too hard on yourself if you don’t manage to do things the way you expected. You have to help yourself, value yourself and learn to be your own best ally.
• Patience leads to movement and action. Patient people are not always calm. They have not given up, nor are they isolated from reality. Rather, the power of patience allows you to save your energy for action. It allows you to use your intuition so that you can better understand when is the best time to act.
• Confidence and optimism are the seeds of effective patience. Patience implies a certain amount of faith in slowness. You have to trust that things will happen naturally at the right time. Having a mind that moves faster than life itself is useless if everything that matters is happening in the here and now.

Finally…

Finally, remember that the power of patience is concentrated. It is also a virtue possessed by people who have learned to control their emotions and thoughts. These people know that everything has its moment.

Sometimes we try to go through life like a rocket, when we really should enjoy it slowly and appreciate it. Relax, slow down, make sure you’re heading in the right direction, and trust the power of patience.