According to Kira Newman, there are four benefits to cultivating patients:
- Better mental health
- Being a better friend and neighbour
- Helps you achieve goals
- Linked to better health
Yet today, everything in society is about impatience. Think about road rage or people getting fed up of waiting in queues. Everything must be done now or yesterday or at least within a few minutes. But by being patient, you can slow down enough to make thoughtful decisions, which are less likely to be the wrong ones. How many times in life have you made a rash decision, and then regretted it? Or had heartburn due to ordering a fast meal, because you did not have the patience to cook a slow-cooked broth at home? Or succumbed to quick-fix diet pills, because you did not have the patience to slowly lose weight and get fit, through sensible eating and gentle exercise? Or gave up studying the guitar or anything else, because you were not a virtuoso within a month?
The Power of Patience is a book on this old-fashioned virtue can improve your life. We’ve all heard the phrase ‘patience is a virtue’, but this virtue carries a wealth of wisdom. Things are moving too quickly in our society, which has results in social and work lives of stress, a place that expects instant gratification. Then people get flustered by the smallest setback or hold-up – from a slow waiter at a restaurant to rush hour traffic.
In this book, the author shows how patience can help to reclaim your priorities, and rein in any aggravation, to allow you to breathe and think more clearly. Make better use of your days and base decisions on how they align with your values, including how fast you get things done. Find joy in the present moment and be happier and healthier as a result.
A Buddhist Parable on Patience
Buddha was thirsty, so asked an impatient discipline to bring him some water from the lake. But the water was muddy, so he returned. So Buddha sent him back to the lake to find water. The disciple was angry, why he had to go back again, as the water was too muddy to drink. But this time, the water was clear. He returned with it and asked Buddha ‘What have you done to clean the water?’ Buddha replied he had done nothing. ‘You waited and let it be, so the mud settled, and now the water is clear. Your mind is like that too. Let it be. Give it time to reach balance, without any effort’
Patience is the calm acceptance, that things can happen in a different order, than the one you have in your mind. David G Allen
Patience is when you’re supposed to get mad, but you choose to understand. Anon
The secret of patience, is to do something else in the meantime. Croft M Pentz
