Patience: Accepting the Present Moment

This post originally published November 17, 2016

How are we supposed to foster a society who is patient in a world full of instant gratification? 

Our social media feeds are packed with people posting their new awesome job, their expensive exotic vacation or their glamorous new car. It’s a vicious cycle of comparison when we see these people succeeding and comparing our lives with theirs. This leads to shame and low self-esteem. However, we decided that people only post the best part of themselves. Social media doesn’t get to see the struggle. The blood, sweat and tears that go into earning that car or vacation don’t even get mentioned. We just assume these things are handed to these people and we wonder why our life isn’t like that. 
  
This is where patience comes in. Patience requires patience. (Thank you Olivia!) Patience requires discipline. Patience requires letting go of expectations and being okay with the outcome no matter what. Sometimes hard work just doesn’t pay off, and we have to be content with that. Be careful of confusing patience with stagnancy though. Being patient with the result of your work is completely different than putting in no work at all. 
  
In addition, patience and time aren’t necessarily related. Time is man-made construct, patience isn’t. Patience involves managing emotions, specifically anxiety. Recognizing that it’s better to be calm and collected in a stressful situation instead of anxious and frantic is patience. It is accepting the present moment as is.

xx Sarah