If only it were that easy, right? Having patience takes practice and sometimes, some serious, mindful effort. With information right at our fingertips and our feeling of not having enough time in any given day, it’s understandable that patience can be…lacking in certain situations.
Here are some tips and tricks on how you can develop more patience.
1.) Examine why you are feeling impatient. Are you running late to a meeting? Perhaps better planning with your time can help alleviate some stress when things don’t move as fast as they should. Understanding what triggers your lack of patience is great information to have because it allows you to structure your day around those things, so you feel more productive.
2.) Choose to wait. Studies have shown that people actually feel happier when they have to wait for something. And it makes sense. We live in a world were instant gratification is a click away. When we feel like we have to earn something, it means more to us and we just feel happier.
3.) Prioritize what is really important. It’s easy to lose patience when you feel like you have 50 million things to do in a day. Take a look at your week and determine the things that you may be doing that take a lot of time and that aren’t all that important. By reducing the amount of unnecessary tasks you do, you put yourself in a better position to handle stress and things that require more patience.
4.) Breathe. When you start to lose patience, take a deep breath in for 2-3 seconds, hold it for 3 seconds and exhale for 3-4 seconds. Repeat 10 times. This is a grounding technique that helps you center your mind so you can be more effective in the moment.
