{"id":97654,"date":"2020-01-12T15:01:13","date_gmt":"2020-01-12T22:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=97654"},"modified":"2020-01-12T15:01:13","modified_gmt":"2020-01-12T22:01:13","slug":"patience-and-mindfulness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/01\/12\/patience-and-mindfulness\/","title":{"rendered":"PATIENCE AND MINDFULNESS"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Patience means the ability to endure and tolerate\ndifficult situations in life and to maintain calmness in the face of life\u2019s\nhardships, frustrations, adversity and suffering. It means the capacity to endure varied vicissitudes of\nlife without being impetuous and hasty. Also, it means the   capacity\nto accept or tolerate delay, difficulty, or annoyance without getting angry or\nupset. Patience is essential\nto daily life and can be a key to a happy one. Patient people enjoy better\nmental and physical health. They tend to experience less of negative emotions,\nbecause they can cope better with upsetting or stressful situations. Studies reveal that people with patience tend to be\nmore content with their lives and less depressed. Patience helps to protect us from the damaging health effects\nbrought about by stress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

People who\nexhibit impatience and irritability<\/a> tend to have more\nhealth complaints. Frequent and excessive impatience, result in increased\nblood pressure, bringing  about the release of stress-related hormones\nsuch as adrenaline, cortisol and leading to increases risk of heart disease.\nStress hormones cause stimulation of platelets which may build up and clog\narteries, raising the risk of heart attack. Stress hormones also cause the release\nof fat from the fat cells into the bloodstream which also causes clogging\narteries. In addition, it causes many more unhealthy effects including weight\ngain and high blood sugar. Frequent and excessive impatience can also result in mental disorders such as anxiety and depression. In addition to harmful health effects, impatience has the\npotential to ruin relationships one has with his\/her friends, family or any\nother people. People tend to avoid impatient people because they are afraid\nthat they might experience negative feelings in dealing with impatient people.\nNothing worthwhile can be gained by being impatient in your life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In general, patient people have always made progress\ntoward their life\u2019s goals and are satisfied with what they have been able to\nachieve. In relationships patience becomes a form of kindness. Facing annoying people with equanimity is an important\ntype of patience. Patient people tend to\nbe more cooperative, more empathic, more equitable, more accommodative, and more\nforgiving<\/a>. Patience enables individuals to tolerate flaws in others,\ntherefore displaying more mercy, forgiveness, compassion and generosity.\nPatience involves emphatically assuming some personal discomfort to alleviate\nthe suffering of those around us. Patient people are better friends and\nneighbors. Patience is one the noblest of spiritual qualities. It is the\ncapacity to face  difficulty when it comes, with a spirit of tolerance,\nendurance, forbearance, strength and dignity, rather than fear, annoyance,\nresentment, anxiety and avoidance. No one likes to be oppressed or defeated,\nyet if we can endure oppression and defeat with strength, without being cranky,\nwe are ennobled by it. Patience makes this possible.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Religious leaders and philosophers have long praised\nthe virtue of patience. The Buddha considered patience to be one of the mental states that\nan awakened person has perfected. Patience is an act of compassion toward\noneself. It gives rise to equanimity or a sublime state of mind which leads to\ninner peace and well-being. With such as calm state of mind it is easier to\nride life\u2019s ups and downs without being tossed about like a boat in a storm.\nPatience enables one to be better able to focus on, or to be attentive to, or\nto be mindful of, whatever situation one finds oneself in, or one is confronted\nwith. In other words, patience helps one to sustain one\u2019s mindfulness.\nConversely, being mindful or attentive helps one to develop and sustain overall\npatience.  Mindful living leads to a more fulfilling and grounded life,\nbeing able to understand oneself better. Individuals with more mindfulness or\nattentiveness have greater resilience, thereby increasing their life\nsatisfaction. Mindful people can better cope with difficult thoughts and\nemotions without becoming overwhelmed or shutting down emotionally. Mindfulness\npromotes well-being, also promotes self-compassion, which leads to higher\nlevels of happiness. Increased resilience clearly plays a major role in this\nbeneficial equation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

MINDFULNESS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mindfulness\nor sati\u201d is an important part of the Buddhist spiritual tradition. \nMindfulness or sati\u201d is the seventh element of the Noble Eightfold Path which\nencapsulates the principal teachings of the Buddha. Here, mindfulness involves\nthe detached observation of what is happening within us and around us in the\npresent moment without  reacting to it. In the practice of mindfulness\nmeditation, the mind is trained to remain focused on the present moment and to\naccept one\u2019s thoughts and responses without judgment. It is a mental mode of\nbeing engaged in the present moment without evaluating or emotionally reacting\nto it. Regular mindfulness practice helps to enhance and strengthen the brains\nability to pay attention. It helps to increase one\u2019s attention span, memory\npower, clear and focused thinking. Mindfulness helps us to respond with greater\nclarity and with a kind heart to whatever situation we find ourselves.\nMindfulness weakens the negative or unwholesome state of mind that causes\nsuffering and confusion and strengthens a wholesome state of mind that lead to\nhappiness. It can help us develop a penetrating awareness that open the mind to\nfull awakening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jon\nKabat-Zinn founded the first Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program\nin 1979 and is largely credited with introducing mindfulness to the West. Since\nthen, substantial research has demonstrated that mindfulness really does\nimprove our mental and physical health. Today, the “Mindfulness\nMovement” is growing in popularity, with hospitals, schools, prisons, the\nmilitary, and many workplaces using this life-changing practice. People from\nall walks of life are turning to mindfulness as a way to bring openheartedness\nand well-being to modern life. In today’s fast-paced society, we can turn to\nmindfulness as way to not just cope, but really thrive in all aspects of our\nlives. Mindfulness has been clinically proven to reduce stress, promote\nfeelings of wellbeing, and improve mental and physical health. It’s a\npowerfully transformative quality that helps us develop greater presence and\ncalmness, reduced emotional reactivity, and greater emotional stability. In\nshort, mindfulness puts us back in charge of our own lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In mindfulness meditation, one learns and trains\noneself to observe thoughts and emotions patiently, without getting carried\naway by them. Mindfulness is a way of learning to relate directly to whatever\nis happening in your life, a way of taking charge of your life, a way of\nconsciously and systematically working with your own stress, pain, illness, and\nthe challenges and demands of everyday life. Mindfulness\nmeditation therefore, can be exceptionally powerful in helping us cultivate a\nnew relationship to impatience and stress and opening the door to a life of\ngreater balance, ease, endurance, tolerance, fortitude and joy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Daya\nHewapathirane<\/strong>Daya.hewapathirane@gmail.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Daya Hewapathirane Patience means the ability to endure and tolerate difficult situations in life and to maintain calmness in the face of life\u2019s hardships, frustrations, adversity and suffering. It means the capacity to endure varied vicissitudes of life without being impetuous and hasty. Also, it means the   capacity to accept or tolerate delay, difficulty, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-daya-hewapathirane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97654\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}