The Soul, Gratitude, and Patience
Practicing Awareness of Our Impatience
Reflection By Robbin Brent
Spirituality comes from spiritus, which means life, breath, aliveness. Spirituality is aliveness on all levels.
… When people are grateful, they come alive.
- Brother David Steindl-Rast
The Soul quadrant of the Living Compass Model for Well-Being focuses on Spirituality and Rest and Play—two areas of our lives that we can leverage for our practice of patience. When we create space in our lives, especially when we are overstressed or overly busy, for rest and play, we build reserves of energy and resilience that will carry over into other areas of our lives, and will definitely help us to be more patient.
One powerful spiritual practice, and an antidote for impatience, we can engage is the practice of gratitude. Genuine gratitude. This practice doesn’t involve a fishing expedition to find only “happy” or positive things for which we are grateful, but to take an honest look at those places and moments in our lives where we are aware of the loving presence of God. No matter what. To identify those things for which we can express authentic gratitude.
One way of beginning is to think about three things for which you are grateful and write them down in a journal. It might be helpful to consider one or more of the eight areas of wellness seen with the “eyes of the heart.” Return to this gratitude practice for the remainder of Advent as a reminder of the goodness and grace and wonder the surrounds you.
Making it Personal: Take a few minutes to write down three things for which you are grateful. If you find this challenging, you might ask yourself if there is anything getting in the way of looking for authentic sources of gratitude? Can you see how a practice of gratitude could help you to be more patient?
TO JOIN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK DISCUSSION GROUP FOR ADVENT, CLICK THE BUTTON BELOW:
Follow along with us this Advent season with our daily devotional and engage in discussion in our closed facebook group moderated by Robbin Brent, Carolyn Karl, Jan Kwiatowski, and Scott Stoner.
In this group, participants will have a chance to share their responses to the prompts in the daily readings, and also the chance to receive additional material for reflection.