Sunday, May 2, 2010

patience and understanding


patience and understanding go hand-in-hand. one without the other is just not possible. especially patience without understanding. so many times we all struggle with patience and we hope that we can have more patience. but its so difficult to pin-point how to have more patience.

maybe count to 5 before speaking. maybe count to 10 before reacting or getting angry. maybe take deep breaths and keep our mouths closed while driving in traffic.

but a great awakening comes when we realize that just by adding a bit of understanding into our minds and hearts in those moments of impatience (and outside those moments), our patience automatically increases.

when we try to understand someone more deeply before reacting or responding, this results in patience.

when we take a moment to think about someone's past or maybe what kind of day they've had, we are automatically more patient when speaking with them.

when we think understand how frustrated everyone else is on the road and how they have important places to be too, then we start showing patience on the roads and let others take our place in front of us.

its another lesson on seeing the glass half full instead of half empty. let's try adding some understanding these days instead of continually trying to increase our patience.