Standing in a line, waiting for your coffee, do you get irritated easily?
Does waiting for your turn at the local post office irk you?
Do you get annoyed when the shopkeeper doesn’t listen to you the first time you call him to let him know what you want?
These are some of the situations that all of us face in our lives, and which test our patience.
I have come to the conclusion, that these situations do indeed test our patience but at the same time present before us an opportunity to hone our willpower.
These are the times when we can practice remaining calm, cool, and composed. A proper time to exercise self-control and thus increase it.
Should these situations affect you?
I don’t know about you but at times these do get to me. In fact, I would go out and say that these affect most of us in our lives. We get impatient, and in that reactionary mode become more prone to do something stupid.
We cannot control life or the people around us.
What we can control is our reaction to it.
These are the times when we perceive something is not going in our favor. Life or an event is not happening as we want it to.
Instead of reacting to it, why not next time try to stay calm about it and raise your ceiling of anger or frustration.
The Techniques you can use to Act, not react.
I know we cannot all be Gandalf. We are not God either. We can’t possibly attain that ideal but at least we can try to aim for it.
We might not become Gandalf but if we improve even a semblance of self-control then that would benefit us in every area of our lives.
Next time when you are in any situation where you find things not happening according to you, just stop 5-seconds to think before reacting. Those 5 seconds will be enough to help you let go of anything rash that you would regret later. Sometimes you wish you could inflict harm on the other person in these situations, but those 5 seconds will save everyone a lot of trouble and regret.
Instead of reacting, next time ACT consciously.
One more technique that I saw somewhere is to visualize yourself moving out of your body and staring at yourself from a distance. Yes, just like Dr.Strange when his soul is pushed out of his body.
That helps us to detach from the present situation and look at it from a different perspective. And sometimes, a different perspective is all we need to cool our nerves, get calm, and regain our composure.
Do you know any more techniques? Do let me know in the comments.
The benefits of this would be that slowly and steadily you will become immune to what is happening around you. You will begin to act consciously. Your reactionary mode will subside. That will save you from a lot of trouble in the future and help you remain calm in difficult situations.
After a gap of some days, I am returning back to my writing. It feels good to write once again. This is my blog, and I write about life. This is day 68.