#232 – What signal does patience send your brain?

As defined by the Cambridge Dictionary, patience is

"the ability to wait, or to continue doing something despite difficulties, or to suffer without complaining or becoming annoyed."

The English word comes from the Latin verb, patēre, which means "to suffer, to endure, to allow, and to permit." It also relates to open and openness – that's where the word patio comes from.

It's also the root of "passive:" someone who endures isn't acting, but being acted upon.

So, when we're patient, we're not doing but just being.

And what does that state tell your brain?

That you've got nothing to fear, nothing to defend yourself against, nowhere else you'd rather be.

In other words, when you're patient, you're telling your brain, "I'm peachy!"

Now, can you always be patient? Because I can't. Why? Many reasons, all of them unreal and created by my own mind:

• Ghost of Misplaced Shame: you have nowhere else to be, like a job or something, like everybody else in the whole universe?
• Ghost of Physical Ailments: what gave you the stomach ache? It should be gone by now!
• Ghost of Stability Boredom: I'm booooored – can't you just walk faster?
• Ghost of Idea Deflection: you're putting all this energy in writing this book and all for what? No one's gonna read it anyway...

You get the picture.

Staying patient is synonymous with standing my ground. Looking the ghosts in the eye and letting them know I don't need them and won't be taking their orders.

Staying patient sends the signal that I own my power, fully and without apology.

How might patience transform your presence in the world?

Love,

Carolina