Gaman gaman patience

Yesterday, I brought a sandwich with me to work for lunch. Because I had a packed schedule, I had it in the car with me. I kept looking at it between sites, and by 10:30, I really wanted to eat it. I wasn’t super hungry, but I just wanted to eat it. Instead, I made the conscious decision to wait until 11:30. I was able to do it! Small victory! Of course, being Catholic, you can also offer this annoyance/small deprivation up for whatever intention is on your heart. I think practicing delayed gratification is a great piece of increasing patience. Too often I find myself wanting to do something right now, and getting annoyed if I can’t. Particularly with food, I find myself snacking a lot. So there we go, first practical patience exercise. Wait until a reasonable time to eat your lunch, even if it is tempting you. (Unless of course you are pregnant or have a medical condition.)

I struggle with impatience. I think a lot of people do. I’m also Catholic, so I have to bring up my impatience pretty much every time I go to confession. Once, the priest gave me advice to the effect of, “Try to practice patience.” I’m not sure why no one had said this to me before, but it did help me realize that patience was something that could be improved. Unfortunately, I tend to have difficulty applying big ideas to the small details of everyday life. Books I have with read talk about general strategies that you apply to a variety of situations to practice patience. I have been thinking about the different facets of patience and I believe there are multiple reasons that a person may act impatiently. I’m going to try, on this blog, to give a real life examples of ways to practice patience. A little story about something I tried that worked, and maybe what facet of patience I think it might strengthen. We shall see how this goes!