The Power of Patience: How This Old-Fashioned Virtue Can Improve Your Life

when we see those who challenge us as teachers rather than burdens, our patience instantly grows.

that much of life requires waiting and we have a choice to do it happily or miserably.

Better to get up late and be wide awake than to get up early and be asleep all day.

By opening our hearts to the people and things that challenge us, we become spiritually and emotionally supple, less prone to being knocked over by whatever curves life throws at us. Difficult people and events become interesting opportunities for further growth, rather than threatening obstacle courses we must endure. From this place, we actually

What’s fascinating about patience in love is that when we accept one another as we are, we actually increase the possibility of change. That’s because our partner’s patience produces a safe haven where we are accepted, warts and all, and in the warmth of that acceptance we may actually feel safe enough to risk growing. Thus, our partner may even en

“When you are angry, you’re carrying the burden while the other person is out dancing.” The more we cultivate patience, the less anger we carry and the more dancing we’ll feel like doing.

Most of us alive today think waiting represents a flaw in some system, rather than a natural condition of life. But human beings have always had to wait—for good weather to plant crops, for plagues to end, for their loved ones to return from years at sea, never knowing if they were alive or not. The only difference now is what we wait on, not that

“When pain strikes, we often ask the wrong questions, such as Why me? The right questions are, What can I learn from this? What can I do about it? What can I accomplish in spite of it?”

It’s a combination of motivation (wanting to), awareness (paying attention to our inner landscape), and cultivation (practicing).