What are you waiting for?

“Patience is not the ability to wait, but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting.” 
​~ Joyce Meyer 

Are you good at waiting? If so, then congratulations! You have conquered perhaps the most challenging aspect of human existence. To master the art of patience is really to master the art of life. That’s because impatience depletes your energy, robbing you of your sense of humor and your capacity to experience joy in the moment. While everyone knows that patience is the key to waiting, most people hate waiting more than anything else. What can you do to become a more patient person? It begins by understanding what patience really is. 

As Joyce Meyer explains in this week’s quote, patience is not so much your ability to wait as it is your ability to regulate your emotions while waiting. Next time you are feeling impatient, pay attention to how your body feels. If your stomach is in knots and your chest is tight, it can be very difficult to breathe. The same is true if your chin is tucked and your jaw is clenched. With all this inner tension, it’s no wonder that waiting can feel so awful. When you are impatient, every minute that goes by feels like torture. However, you are not only the victim that has to endure this torture- you are also the torturer.  
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The secret to being patient is realizing that tensing up and holding your breath doesn’t actually make time speed up, it just makes you feel bad inside as time goes by. Compared to impatience, patience actually feels pretty nice. Instead of a heavy, constricted experience- as if the walls were closing in around you- patience feels light and expansive. So, stop tying yourself in knots every time you have to wait. Impatient people want to move on to the next moment so badly, they completely forget to enjoy this one. Patient people, on the other hand, are just happy to be here, regardless of how long things take.