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We All Need to Get Better at Waiting
Patience is a habit many of us have gotten out of
I’m an impatient person. Even back when time marched on at a healthy clip, I was not great at waiting. Whenever I did have to wait for something — a response to an email, a delayed flight — I’d become both anxious and laser-focused, unable to concentrate on anything else. And now that we live in a world where so many aspects of our daily lives have come to a screeching halt, I feel ready to jump out of my skin.
We’re all sitting in this perpetual waiting room, with no clear sense of when we’ll be allowed out. And while everyone’s handling the pandemic differently, there is one consensus: Waiting for this thing to end is freaking hard, especially because we’re so used to expediency.
So how do we train our brains — already stressed about money, home schooling, safety, health issues, and jobs — to be patient when we have no idea of an end point?
Condition yourself to stay in the present
You probably knew I was going to say it: Mindfulness. By learning to actively focus on the here and now while acknowledging your negative feelings — but not letting them overtake you — you can get a lot better at the art of patience.
