NURTURING WISDOM
Wisdom’s Muscles — Part 18
Patience
Welcome to our blog series on wisdom and its muscles. In previous parts, we covered wisdom’s foundation and its muscles including goodness, faith, acknowledgment, hope, fairness and contentment, gratitude, grit, trust, compassion, kindness, knowledge, understanding, forgiveness, humility and deliberation.
Now, let’s explore the next core muscle, which is patience. Patience involves taking time to control emotions, collect more information and consider the consequences. This helps to better understand the situation which leads to better outcomes and personal growth.
In this post, we will discuss patience, how it impacts wisdom, and how you can improve it. So, let’s dive in …
What is patience?
In the context of wisdom, patience is a pause thoughtful decision. This provides a space for reflection which is essential to avoid impulsive reactions.
How does patience impact wisdom?
Patience impacts wisdom in several ways:
Avoiding Mistakes
When you rush into making decisions, you usually use emotions which increases the risk of mistakes. Patience helps to be calm, and more thoughtful allows for a calmer and avoids mistakes.
Making informed Decisions
Patience enables you to collect information and understand the consequences of different options. This leads to informed decisions and avoiding impulsive reactions.
Better analyzing Complexities
Patience provides time to better understand different factors impacting the situation. This enables better analysis the complex situations and makes wise decisions.
Emotional Control
Patience helps to regulate emotions and avoid rushing to a decision. A wise person better understands how strong emotion can impact judgement and control it.
How to foster patience?
Fostering patience is a journey. Here are some key techniques that you can use to foster patience for better wisdom:
Challenge Impatience
Whenever you are making a decision, ask yourself if you need to make an immediate reaction, or if taking a moment to reflect would be more beneficial. Consider delay as an opportunity to learn and cultivate patience.
Use Mindfulness
Mindfulness practices such as meditation, mindful breathing and body scan can help you to develop awareness of your thoughts, relax and foster patience.
Building Habits
Start with small practices of patience in your daily routine. Identify situations that trigger your impatience and develop strategies to manage those.
Learn from Others
Learn from patient people and how they handle situations. This provides valuable insights that can help foster patience in your own life.
Practice Forgiveness
Use forgiveness which can help you allow letting go of negativity. This helps to foster patience.
Celebrate your progress
Celebrating your progress can make you motivated and help you cultivate patience.
Conclusion
Fostering Patience is a journey and requires consistent effort to strengthen. Mindfulness Practices such as meditation and body scan can help you to manage emotions and avoid impulsive reactions. This can become the foundation for wise decision-making. As our patience grows stronger, so does our wisdom, leading to a more informed decision.
