A search for the phrase “importance of patience” generated 59,600,000 hits. Additional subtitles include patience in: business, relationships, teaching, parenting. This quotation from a “Wisdom Times” blog post titled Importance of Patience in Life probably sums it up:
Anger and stress are two things that are enough to ruin a person’s health. And patience is the antidote to both these illnesses. … Patience is an important tool in overcoming frustration. Patience allows us to suspend judgment long enough to make informed decisions, thus paving the path to a happy and peaceful life.
Cultivating patience as taught to Buddhist monks means patience when enduring hardship, patience with others, and acceptance of truth. Monks are expected to withstand the despair of losing someone or feeling pain. Their teaching is to not return anger with anger. They are to accept misfortune as an outcome of their own actions.
In The Lasting Power of Patience, science is teaching us the same thing:
“Historians are telling us that we need our self-control to avoid becoming obese, because we live, for the first time in human history, in an era of easy food availability,” she said. “We need it to maintain our fitness, because for the first time in human history, our jobs are sedentary. We need our willpower to sustain marriages because it’s so easy to get divorced today. We need our self-discipline to prevent addiction because illicit and addictive substances are easily accessible all around us. … Now on top of all that, we have to save for our old, old age in an era without guaranteed pensions.”
The data that have served as the core of Moffitt’s ongoing research are compiled from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study, consisting of more than 1,030 people born in 1972–1973 in the town of Dunedin, New Zealand, and followed from birth.
This week, be intentional about patience in life. It is easy to recognize the mental health benefits of patience but the importance of patience obviously extends well beyond that.
Tips from 5 April 2010 to 6 August 2012 are here: Archived Tips
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Rev. Debra Basham
Voice or text: (269) 921-2217 Email: debra@scs-matters.com http://DebraBasham.com http://ImagineHealing.info http://SurgicalSupport.info Small Changes … Infinite Results™
“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” ~ Mother Teresa |