Patience is a Learned Habit

You’ve been working towards a dream, you’ve set goals and implemented your action plans, and then there is that crazy time – the wait. Waiting for that dream or goal to come to fruition can be so darned hard. Why is waiting so difficult? Because waiting is defined as the action of staying where one is or delaying action until a particular time or until something else happens. It can be uncomfortable and that is where patience comes in.

For me, 2018 has been a wild ride, with so many crazy twists and turns; it has been exciting and exhausting at the same time, and I must admit that patience is the area in my life that I must continually force self-improvement. I’m a go, go, go-type of person so staying put when I know exactly where I want to go is really difficult.

There is something that I must remind myself, and that is that patience is not about waiting, but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting. Be patient and remember that some things take time.

Another thing to understand is that patience creates results. Patience is not about doing nothing, it’s about constantly doing everything that you can as you wait.
No great thing is created suddenly.

Patience is an action that we take, which transforms wait-time into manifested desires. It’s a time where we exercise our power to create the results that we want. Patience is about being kind to yourself, even when circumstances are out of your control.

Being kind to oneself can be the toughest part of waiting for anything because we can allow ourselves to come up with so many negative “what-ifs” that we can drive ourselves crazy. Our thoughts go into auto-pilot as new thoughts are born from other thoughts like bunnies reproducing out of control. All of a sudden we realize that we are being overrun by thoughts that aren’t serving us.

When we introduce patience into our thinking patterns, we introduce thoughts of “It’s going to be okay, because I say it’s okay.” And let me let you in on a little secret, even if the circumstances aren’t okay, you can be okay – you get to decide that you are okay, despite circumstances.

Patience is a calming influence wherein you accept where you currently are as you actively prepare for the future state that you desire, and being okay in that place. Like everything, practice makes things much easier, and patience is no exception.

The first thought to introduce to practice patience is choosing happiness now. Your thought will sound something like this: “I am looking forward to what I desire, but I choose to not let happiness in this moment become a lost opportunity. I’m choosing to be happy now, right where I am.”

We can get so caught up in thinking of the future that we lose our joy today. Choose to be joyful to introduce patience – let me tell you, it makes the waiting period so much easier. Inviting in and exercising a joyful feeling will help to replace uncomfortable feelings of waiting.

The next thought to introduce to yourself to practice patience is that slowing down creates thorough results. In your joyful place, slowing your thoughts down by focusing on the details needed to bring forth results can actually create more time for you to manifest your desires.

Slowing down chaotic, auto-pilot thinking that tends to focus on what can go wrong and focusing instead on what you can control will allow you to develop well-thought out plans to execute. This will also allow you to think before you speak and think before you act.

Imagine patience as a knob that you are turning down the speed of the activities around you to chill mode. You have the control to slow things down, just by turning the knob. Patience is an act of self-care and love as it protects you from rushing ahead without thinking things through. It is a channel for peace and joy and it is 100% within your control.

These two new thoughts will help you to practice patience, but there is one critical piece that I have purposively left out for last, but it’s actually the beginning – and that is the connector – your breath. Patience begins with a breath. Slowly take in a deep breath and slowly and completely let it out. This is the initiation phase of patience as it is a conscious act of controlling that very thing that you need to sustain life – breath.

Once you have taken the initial cleansing breath in and out, with your second breath choose your new thought to be happy during the wait. Breathe in and out as you process this thought.

Finally, take in the third cleansing breath is your control panel breath – turn the knob down to chill – it’s time to slow down.
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Patience is practiced. All things are difficult before they become easy. But think of it this way, you’ve been breathing all of your life; you have mastered that! Breathe in your new peace. Breathe in your control. Breathe in patience.