01 Oct 5 ways to be more patient and allow yourself to be happier
Constant killers of happiness for many are…frustration and irritability and anger.
These are normal human emotions but they're typically unhelpful and further, often unnecessary.
Curbing or managing these feelings by practising being more patient can make a massive difference for many people which is why today we're happy to bring you this article highlighting 5 ways to become more patient (and, we would argue, happier)…
by Lindsay Holmes from the Huffington Post
Here's a riddle: What do traffic jams, long lines and waiting for a vacation to start all have in common?
Aside from the painfully obvious fact that they're completely unwelcome stressors in our lives, there's another answer: They're all situations where we could use a little extra patience.
In our defense, it's not really surprising or fault-worthy if we don't practice the virtue often. In a digitally obsessed world, we're used to having what we need immediately and right at our fingertips. Even further, we're constantly busy. Between rushing from work, to home, to kids' recitals or Zumba class, it's no wonder we don't really have patience. Our environment makes us think that we don't have the time for it.
However, despite our aversion, research suggests that if we practiced patience, we'd be a whole lot better off. Here are five ways we can learn to cultivate more patience — and why we should want to.
Practice gratitude.
Thankfulness has a multitude of benefits: Research shows it makes us happier, less stressed and even more optimistic — and according to a March 2014 study published in the journal Psychological Science, it can also help us practice more patience.
"Showing that emotion can foster self-control and discovering a way to reduce impatience with a simple gratitude exercise opens up tremendous possibilities for reducing a wide range of societal ills from impulse buying and insufficient saving to obesity and smoking," Ye Li, researcher and assistant professor at the University of California, Riverside School of Business Administration, told the Association for Psychological Science. Getting rid of our need for instant gratification with a simple gratitude exercise? We'll take it.
Be mindful of what is making you feel rushed.
Our mental to-do lists have a tendency of becoming like a traffic jam for our brains. Soon we're so occupied with what we have to do, we're intolerant of anything (like actual traffic) that gets in the way of it. "Our minds are constantly jumping from thought to thought, task to task, worry to worry," motivational coach and author Rob Whitewrote in a HuffPost blog. "We live interrupted lives, punctuated with distractions that come at us from all sides. Multi-tasking is the norm … All this adds up to a state of hurry."
Mindfulness, or awareness of our thoughts, can do a lot of good when we have a million things going through our heads. Write out your thoughts or what you have to do in order to get a tangible frame on what's making you so impatient, White wrote. "These steps alone will illuminate the insanity of the jumping mind and the value of slowing down," he explained…
…keep reading the full article HERE