Finding Patience

I love to get things done. If I’m not doing something, I’m usually thinking about doing something. It wasn’t until I was sitting on the train purposely trying to use my phone less, that it dawned on me that I “naturally” felt impatient. There was no real reason for the impatience, it was just this kind of uncomfortable feeling that I should keep on doing something or be learning something.

What are we doing with our lives if we’re always moving forwards? It may sound like an excellent idea to move forward, so as to avoid being lazy. However, we’re not likely to work smarter over harder if we don’t take a moment to think about what direction we’re really going in. Sometimes, taking a break is exactly what we need so we avoid overexerting ourselves in hopes of a better future.

We don’t always have to be doing something in order to be productive. Sometimes we just need to be present and give our attention to someone – or even to ourselves, if we have some internal work to do. Giving attention is effective when it’s based in love. Love also prevents us from being lazy. If we worry that being present and spending time to calm the mind is a form of being lazy, we can be assured that love doesn’t hold such an adverse quality.

When we focus on love as the reason behind our actions, we begin to see changes happen in every aspect of our lives. We become less judgmental, which in turn allows us less inclination to be perfectionists. We begin to try and work for cohesion and not fight for our own opinions to always win out. We begin to find satisfaction in our own talents rather than being jealous of what we don’t have. Love does an incredible amount of things that we wouldn’t expect until we give it our attention or let it integrate further into our lives than we usually allow.

We find patience when we realize that we don’t need to keep moving forward to cover up feelings of inadequacy. We can never do enough in this life to prove ourselves valuable - we inherently have value within us. Love is what sets that value into motion. We all have unique talents and gifts. When we allow love in, then we allow patience to guide our lives and we begin to focus on what we can give rather than what we can gain.

For further related reading, please check out: Productive Relaxing.