Patience Is Strength

How many of you ever felt like patience is strength? What does that even mean? I'll tell you what it means... Patience can be applied to different circumstances and situations where something might be frustrating but you calm yourself down and just wait...

I remember a personal incident that happened to me in university. I lived in the dorms during my undergraduate studies and among the people I knew was one who was irritating and was trying to either get on my nerves or just had this habit of making fun of people to help him feel popular and confident I guess. I'm sure all of us have seen such self-centered, cocky individuals that think they're funny, popular, and could mock other people as they wish.

The only right thing to do then was to be patient, because people like this are waiting for you to display emotion or react for them to continue to mock you. However, if you show them that you are indifferent and that they're words don't and will not affect you, they're motive for mocking you is not present anymore and they would probably stop acting like kids. What happened with me was that I stayed patient and patient and patient until once I decided to stand up for myself and confront him. Suddenly, all the mocking and other acts were drastically reduced or even stopped completely.

This strategy could also help with fighting bullying, racism, or any other kind of discrimination. Just remember that the bully or the oppressor wants you to feel weak and break down but if you prove him wrong, are patient and just pretend like they're not there, they'll start doubting their mocking game. Moreover, some oppressors are persistent and won't give up the feeling of being immortal and strong. Thus, just as in any other situation the initial answer is patience, patience, and more patience.

One other important thing is that whether or not a discriminator, a bully, or a mocker admits or shows signs or emotions of respect towards your patience, unconsciously those types of people know that you have some strength to be able to control yourself and not turn it into a fight!

One could ask me, well what if I stayed patient and ignoring for a long time and these acts never stop and the mocking or discrimination just kept going on. Well, then you could take further action; reporting the situation to a supervisor or confronting the individual(s).

I'm not saying that the solution to all problems is patience, all I'm saying is that it's a powerful tool we could use to our advantage. Each individual definitely has a patience capacity and that's fine especially when the issue is just burning on the inside. Just find the best way or method the dilemma can be stopped if patience doesn't work but try to refrain from supporting the bullies by showing any signs of weakness or discomfort.

Let's shift gears here and look at how patience could be used for another application. How many of you ever had a situation in your life where you wanted something so badly it made you really frustrated but were patient enough that after that day you got whatever you wanted or maybe even something better? I know this happened to me like a trillion times... I remember when I was younger I'd want things but had the patience to wait and got even better things as a result. We see it all the time in kids and even siblings. Let's say they want to go to an arcade place to play video games on a given day but it happens that mom and dad are really tired that day. So they try to tell them in an understanding way that it would not be possible to go have fun that day. However, all they comprehend and process is the idea that it's not going to happen.

As a result, they're mood worsens and they lose hope of going to the arcade place for the whole week. A day or two later they're mother all of a sudden asks them if they'd like to go out and have fun today. Out of extreme joy and happiness, they jump off the chair and dress up rapidly with a huge smile on your face. Never did they expect mom to take them today to the games but it happened. Again, I'm not saying this always works but believe me patience does work. I can keep on going for ages about patience and how it can be applied to studying, working, and relationships among other things but I think you get the message:p

Try implementing patience in one extra area of your life or starting introducing it into your life if you haven't yet and note the big difference that will take place... it's amazing..

Can anyone think of a beneficial application for patience and how it will help resolve the situation? I'd love to hear your thoughts.