Practicing Patience — grateful soul

In today’s world it is easy to find ourselves constantly anxiety-ridden thanks to the lack of patience that our instantly gratifying technologies have trained us to have. When we feel ourselves in impatient states, we are acting as our mind and body’s worst enemy – subjecting our heart rate to a state of uneasiness and releasing stress hormones that leave unnecessary negative affects on other body systems. So what’s the remedy? Learning to take a deep breath and own up to the fact that we cannot speed up time or predict the future. We must take a look at what we have in the here and now, toss wild “what ifs” out of our minds, and recognize that at the end of the day, getting irritated over situations that deal with the difference of a few seconds or minutes aren’t worth our energy.

The first step in practicing more patience is to put ourselves in check and realize that we do not have the power to control circumstantial things like time ticking by or how other people will play their roles in the given situation. Like I’ve mentioned before, perspective plays a vital role in how we train our mind and body to react, thus we must focus our thoughts on what each moment is providing us with rather than what it is costing us. Eventually, we might find that we naturally are able to keep stress levels low since we have an overall calmness that we have become acclimated to. One way to begin this exercise is to take a deep breath whenever we feel ourselves itching to fast-forward time, followed by reminding ourselves that the current moment offers a great opportunity to reflect on what we do have and how we have positively evolved throughout past moments to get to this present moment. Next time you are at a red light feeling restless and burning for the minuscule amount of time that you are stuck in that spot to be even shorter, try to ease your mind and realize that in the scheme of life, working yourself up over minor seconds is not worth the gratitude that the stress will strip you of. Be grateful for all of life’s little moments, even if it is just a couple of seconds.

On a more long term scale, when we find ourselves trying to unravel the mysteries of future circumstances, it is important to take a step back and appreciate the potential of the immediate instants that we are only wasting if we set our sights completely on occurrences that we do not have total control over. In surrendering ourselves to a higher power and acknowledging that “everything that is meant to be, will be,” we free up our worries and allow our energy to filter towards maximizing the present moment. Looking back on our pasts, many occurrences were probably somewhat dependent on factors outside of ourselves; thus, if we allow ourselves to completely melt into what we know and have for sure, we lift an incredible weight and pressure off of our hearts and souls. In the long run, this will keep us healthy, youthful, radiant, and help us to extend our futures, so as to be able to live longer, happier lives.

Harness the fresh, transformative energy of this recent Gemini new moon to learn something new about yourself and check into your thought patterns! Every day is an opportunity to make a positive change and be happy! Here’s to a sensational weekend everyone!