Having patience means you can remain calm, even when you’ve been waiting forever or dealing with something painstakingly slow or trying to teach someone how to do something and they just don’t get it. It involves acceptance and tolerance and is usually easier to have when there’s something in it for you at the end. That could be a goal you’ve been slowly working to achieve, or just lower blood pressure. 

Sound familiar? Of course, it does! You tried to have patience during that last IEP meeting where no one could agree on anything and there was a straight yelling match or the recertification meeting that no one bothered to inform you was rescheduled and you rearranged your entire day! Fun times….  

Most of us know what patience is. However, knowing it, and having it are two different things! Trust me I’m guilty of this myself. So how can we have more patience? Most times in the moment, if you’re impatient or stressed out, you’re not mindful of how you’re feeling or what you can do to calm yourself down. This is where training your mind comes into place. 

OMG MORE WORK!! REALLY? 😩 

Patience!!😇 

To change the way you think, first you must retrain your mind. You need to retrain your mind to think before you react. When you feel yourself becoming stressed or impatient, try some of these techniques. 

• Mini meditation. This is very good in the moment especially when you can’t step away from a situation and you’re frustrated, close your eyes, and take some cleansing breaths. You don’t always have to close your eyes as not to feel like you look weird!!🤪
• Be mindful that somethings you can’t change. But some things you can, and the things you can, adjust to make your life easier.
• Make time for yourself. This is a must. We as humans must accept the fact that we are not superheroes. It’s true!No really! I thought I was. Turns out I’m not able to fly, leap tall buildings or save the world! Who knew?
• Ask for help? This was a very difficult one for me because again:
  But you must do it because as I learned, I can’t do everything. So, I did learn to ask for help and do you know why? Because the nice people at the bank don’t like it when you’re yelling at them because they won’t give you any money, but you haven’t given them your check yet !!YIKES 

We all must strive every day to make sure that we take care of ourselves in order to take care of our loved ones, do our jobs, and overall, just live.  And with that we must learn to have patience. We can’t be responsible for the actions of others, but we can be responsible for our own actions. 

Thank you for your patience!! 👍 

By Tona Collins
Child and Adult Advocate