Patience

Patience is the word for the week of January 17th, 2022

What do you associate with patience? Is it a term that makes you roll your eyes? Maybe you even have the feeling that patience is a burden or demands even more energy and strength from you than you already have to give?

Do you associate patience with (forced) inaction, with the feeling of having to surrender or endure something or someone?
When someone tells you “you have to be patient”, what feeling does that cause in you?

Patience is demanded of us when we are stuck in traffic, when we are waiting for decisions, when we can’t achieve, get or implement something in the time frame we would prefer, namely faster.

And so it seems to me that patience is closely linked to a time span we would like to shorten and/ or a self-efficacy we would like to increase, a desire for more influence and determination on the when and how.

Does being patient mean being able to wait more contently for something to pass or come? Can patience also be an indication of the quality of waiting or on how we spent our time?

If we have a sense of helplessness, we might easily associate patience with “enduring,” as a mild form of being at the mercy of situations in which we are dependent on other things/people/events and would like them to be different.

But if we look at patience more from the perspective of grit and perseverance, it almost becomes a “doing word”. If I’m certain that my wish will come true (even if it is not yet immediately), then patience becomes an active attitude fed by the principle of hope. If I have no doubt that something will happen and also that something is arleady happening during the time I need patience in, even if it may not necessarily be visible or obvious to me yet, I can consciously create the in-between time in a way which is meaningful and beneficial to me.

How can you influence your energy and the outcome when you face circumstances with that attitude of patience?

If you create something with patience, could it be that it gets better?

If you meet someone (yourself) with patience, could it be that you will be more generous and tolerant?

If you have patience, are patient, could it be that you open yourself more to the moment and accept slowness and deceleration as a gift?

“Patience is a virtue”, so they say, and this week I invite you to notice more closely when and in which situations patience comes easier to you and when you feel impatience inside. What is different then? What could be the reason that you have more patience in one situation and less in another? What pressure do you feel (less) then? Which people are involved and how? What do you feel stands in your way or what do you have patience for more?

When is patience something positive for you, when negative? Why?
How can having patience support you if you are a patient with health issues?

What can you hardly wait for and can only be patient with difficulty – what are you then looking forward to and focused on or what do you want to finally be over with?

Patience for this week. For you. I wish you patience with yourself and the pleasure of doing something with patience, attention and love. For you, with you and others.