Love Culture #9 Patience

I had always believed myself to be patient until I had to bear more than the usual. I guess we all have those moments when you just use your impatience as an excuse for being over reactive. It happens so many time and unfortunately most of the times we are ill prepared for it.

Patience is the ability to tolerate waiting, delay, or frustration without becoming agitated or upset. It's the ability to be able to control your emotions or impulses and proceed calmly when faced with difficulties. It comes from the Latin word pati which means to suffer, to endure, to bear.

Needless to say, patience does not come easily to most of us and it's probably harder now to be patient than historically it has ever been.

In today's world of 'instant everything', technological advancements and readily available services have allowed us to obtain, experience, and consume practically anything we want - almost immediately. Well, if we want to reach our goals, have successful relationships and achieve personal peace, we need to develop patience.

Anything worthwhile and of importance cannot take place right away. It takes time, dedication and effort to achieve; so even in this day and age, patience is a virtue.

Patience is definitely a valuable character trait to develop. It may appear to be passive, however it is an active, purposeful and necessary form of self-discipline. Without patience many of our actions would be counter-productive and ultimately much time and energy would be wasted spinning our wheels. Surely, patience is a time-tested virtue.

Patience is essential to daily life—and might be key to a happy one. Having patience means being able to wait calmly in the face of frustration or adversity, so anywhere there is frustration or adversity—i.e., nearly everywhere—we have the opportunity to practice patience.

Patience is one of the vital expressions of love.