What do you do?
What do you do when all the avenues that you might like to travel down, to take action about in order to resolve a problem or further a goal, are blocked? How do you handle this type of frustration internally, especially after all efforts to resolve, to achieve, or to make progress seem closed off?
This sense of frustration is a common problem in our lives. We see it everywhere, from driving through traffic, to trying to get Customer Service, and in much larger ways too, such as in relationships with spouse, child, parent, sibling or on the job with boss, manager, employee, coworker, and so forth. Frustration is almost a defining marker of contemporary society.
Recently, at the worst possible time (the way it often is), before traveling, facing deadlines, and trying to oblige clients, my computer died. It’s an old one, and the solution, as I was told ad infinitum was to toss it and buy a new one. Logical, except that much of my software either would no longer work on the upgraded operating system, or was lost somewhere in the mists of time as the computer aged and as I moved twice, and finally it was too drastic a solution, especially since there was still some hope of rescuing my friendly ol’ machine. On top of this blockage, the printer simultaneously died as well!
Now, suffice it to say that every effort was made to work around the obstacles.
But in the end, only a large chunk of time would meet the needs of the salvaging operation. This meant that urgent deadlines would have to be postponed, clients would have to be mollified, and poor substitutes for many computer-driven situations would have to be worked around.
In today’s world, especially with our dependency on technology and our frantic schedules, and often overloaded expectations, this type of frustration isn’t uncommon. Patience, then, becomes the only viable answer.
What is true patience? Well, it’s easier to say what it isn’t. It isn’t scratching at the door or pacing the cage. It isn’t an agitated state of clock-watching. And it isn’t mounting internal pressure. True patience is a surrender. It’s a letting go of what your will demands, and what your active energy wants to get on with. True patience requires letting go. Having exhausted all possible energetic efforts, the only logical avenue is one of quietude.
The mind must recognize this first.
The letting-go is a deliberate alignment of your thoughts with the pace of the universe. If you are being blocked, you might want to ask yourself, why? Is there some internal processing that can benefit your ultimate results through a period of restraint and cogitation? Can the delay benefit you with a further opportunity to evaluate your choices? In any case, when the mind comes into this peaceful realization, the breathing slows down, you sleep better, the nervous energy decreases, and the enforced period of waiting becomes tolerable and even – believe it or not! – pleasant. You’re being given a break, even if you didn’t want it.
Apply this new-found patience to traffic jams, unresponsive customers, devilish machinery, and even expectations from your loved ones, and see if that doesn’t change the vibe. Although the pace of the universe seems to be exterior, the vibe is surely within you. It’s something you can feel, and then you can align with it.
This is the path to a healthier lifestyle. It’s the path to wisdom. Patience is a virtue, and that’s why.
Read more posts by Judi Thomases, wisdom expert. Judi is a contributing blogger for JenningsWire.
