Practice patience and peace

Dear readers, today’s blog post is geared more towards me, to help me reflect on how patience and peace are necessary in our lives. Patience is key to live a content life. Patience can be defined as the ability to endure and face adversity without losing hope, which can in turn lead to peace of mind. According to Merriam-Webster, patience is the ability to wait for a long time without becoming annoyed or upset, the ability to remain calm and not become annoyed when dealing with problems or with difficult people, or the ability to give attention to something for a long time without becoming bored or losing interest. Peace is defined by Merriam-Webster as a state of tranquility or quiet, freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions, and harmony in personal relations. So how can we obtain patience and/or peace? In this post, I share some ways that I try to cultivate these traits. Disclaimer: This post is my personal opinion and in no way reflects professional advise or guidance.

Introduction

We all may have met people in our lives who are peaceful, patient and positive. Many of such people may have had struggles and failures in their lives, but it is the attitude and not the circumstances that makes one a winner. I have personally struggled with patience since I was a kid. I am a middle child, and did not have any patience with my younger sister although my older one did show patience with me. Being a middle one, may be I was spoiled – good at receiving but not giving? Flash forward to my teen years and college, I was fortunate to make friends who did not judge me much and slowly I started developing patience, but I was not even close. Life does make you wise with age and experiences. Marriage brought its own learning. With two kids and a full time job, I learned a little to balance work and home but did not successfully learn patience and peace in the process. Today as I write and think back there were hundreds, if not thousands, of opportunities for me to be thankful and grow patience.

Peace, on the other hand, is more about you being in harmony and not dependent on others. It comes with introspection and developing the right positive thoughts and attitude. Of course as humans, our external environment plays a huge role in shaping our internal thoughts- fear, stress, happy or relaxed. In my own journey of life, now with two teens and a husband of almost two decades I am still learning to be more patient which in turns helps me to become more peaceful.

5 ways to develop patience and peace of mind

I have come up with this list of 5 simple ways to help me cultivate more patience with my kids and family. As many of us are, I think, I practice more patience and tolerance with acquaintances than family members. As a result, though many of my friends may think of me as patient and loving the reality may not be exactly that. This is one of my New Year SMART goals. For me, peace of mind is the ultimate virtue to have! Isn’t that what we all want? We all want to accomplish things to be happy and successful, with the end goal to be peaceful. Peace comes when one believes that we can be content and happy where we are right now, instead of reaching milestones to achieve it.

Here are my five simple ways to develop patience and thereafter peace in our lives-

1. Grow your faith

Many of us are faithful people. We believe in the Super Power, and try to develop gratitude and a thankful attitude. I am more of a spiritual than a religious person. For me, in this journey of faith I have to pause sometimes and see how far I have come. Am I stuck in the same place I was years or months ago? The growth is what is most important. We all may be at different places but eventually we should all be moving further and growing our faith. This gives us confidence and the ability to keep going in life. So I want to encourage you all to grow yourself just a little bit every day. Look back and be humbled at where you have reached from where you started!

2. Keep your bucket full

Keeping your bucket full means you are full of hope, joy, positivity and encouragement. You can not give out of an empty bucket, and you will give what you have. If your bucket is full of love and happiness, you will give out that. If you have negative things in your bucket, it is but obvious to give what you have in your bucket. So be deliberate and intentional about what you are keeping in your bucket. As shared in many of my previous posts, everyone’s life has little turmoil now and then but the most important thing is to always get up and keep going. If you haven’t, I encourage you to read this book about how full is your bucket.

3. Let it go. Forget and forgive

It is definitely easier said than done. But learning to let go can take so much weight off your chest. It can relieve you of physical and mental ailments. Try to treat everyone with love, respect and kindness that they deserve. You never know what people may be going through in their lives in that instant, so always always be kind!

4. Live each day and moment as they come

There is power in the now or present. Do not wait for perfect moment, instead try to make each moment as perfect as you can. If you have not yet, I encourage you to read this book by Eckhart Tolle about the Power of Now.

5. Accept happiness and struggles as part of life

In this journey called life, there are always ups and down. No one has a perfect life. Do not let the life situation change your attitude. Make your thought process so strong that inner contentment may be reached without outside joy. Do not be too happy or too sad. Learn to live in balance. Enjoy the life as it comes, and have faith that this too shall pass. Believe that God is on your side, and walks step by step with you every day. You are never alone. Develop habits like mindfulness and journaling to calm your mind, and help you cultivate patience to attain a tranquil state of peaceful mind.

Wrap Up

To wrap up, in today’s post I shared five ways to develop patience in life leading to ultimately peace of mind. Patience and peace are the ingredients to live a life where you are in control of your destiny and the journey. Everyone’s lives have struggles, ups and downs, disappointments and failures; but the important thing is to get up and keep moving ahead in life.

Dear readers, we would love to hear from you. How do you practice patience and peace in your life? What other habits do you find the most useful to have peace of mind in your life?

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