How to Be More Patient: 6 Tips

Patience is a virtue that stems from the ability to handle difficult situations with a calm and resilient mindset. You can display patience in different ways. For example, waiting during an unexpected delay and remaining even-tempered when others feel angry or upset are both acts of patience. Developing a patient mindset can help you manage stress levels when facing a frustrating and challenging experience. It can also allow you to stay present and avoid boredom during quiet, uneventful moments.

Psychologist Sarah Schnitker developed three categories for classifying different types of patience: interpersonal patience, life hardship patience, and daily hassles patience. Interpersonal patience describes the ability to navigate difficult relationships and results from emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and empathy. Both life hardship patience and daily hassles patience stem from the ability to handle different types of stressors. While life hardship patience refers to an individual’s ability to manage long-term obstacles, such as filing a divorce, daily hassles patience encompasses an individual’s ability to handle day-to-day stressors, such as getting stuck in a traffic jam.

Fostering patience in all its forms can help you promote a healthy and happy lifestyle. Being patient can:

• Aid with goals: Developing a patient mindset can also help you work toward your goals. When you practice patience, you can set more realistic benchmarks and timelines as you try to achieve a long-term goal. You can handle short-term failures or mishaps because you have the fortitude to overcome setbacks.
• Promote wellness: Wellness encompasses both physical and mental health, and building patience supports your overall well-being. By adopting a patient, even-tempered mindset, you will more likely accept what you cannot change, making you less likely to dwell on what you cannot control.
• Improve relationships: Building patience not only impacts you, but it also impacts those you interact with daily. Inpatient people often react with frustration or anger in the face of a problem, which pushes others away. However, by listening more and reacting less, you can build patience, improve interpersonal skills, and foster healthy relationships.
• Increase empathy: Patience and empathy share common ground, as patience fuels empathy and empathy stems from patience. The more you practice patience, the more empathic you will become. Some ways you can foster empathy through patience is by trying to understand the other person’s feelings, viewing a problem from a different perspective, and actively listening to the people around you.

Practice patience in everyday life so you can control your emotions and reactions when faced with stressful situations. Use the below tips as exercises and changes you can try to become more patient:

1. 1. Listen more. Whether talking with a family member, friend, or coworker, listening actively and fostering empathy is a way to practice gratitude and improve your interpersonal patience. Taking the time to let the other person speak first demonstrates you care about their opinions and ideas, which creates a productive space for discussion.
2. 2. Meditate. Meditation trains your brain and body to release negative emotions and reach a state of relaxation. Through deep breathing, meditating forces you to eliminate external distractions and actively practice patience. If you have not meditated before, start by setting aside a few minutes each day to practice meditation and patience.
3. 3. Practice mindfulness. Mindfulness is the act of focusing on and enjoying the present moment. When balancing work, relationships, and social events, you might resort to multitasking; however, this often leads to rushing and impatience. By taking the time to focus on one assignment, one event, or one conversation, you can build your patience and reframe your mindset to be both present and positive.
4. 4. Reduce your screen time. Limiting your daily screen time is another way you can practice patience. Consider turning your phone off when you meet up with friends and family to provide them with your undivided attention. You can also set a limit on your phone to reduce your screen time each day. These simple changes add up over time and help foster mindfulness and patience.
5. 5. Slow down. Rushing is a common sign of a lack of patience. When you catch yourself scrambling through an assignment or speeding on the road, encourage yourself to slow down, whether it’s physically or mentally. Simply forcing yourself to stop and take three deep breaths is an easy way to calm yourself and slow down.
6. 6. Take deep breaths. A simple way to calm both your mind and body when you feel overwhelmed or impatient is to breathe deeply. Close your eyes and take ten deep breaths to clear your mind. This will help release any tension and allow you to think with a refreshed mindset, so you can gain self-control over the situation.

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