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If You Want to Leave Stress Behind, Grow Your Patience
“If you are depressed you are living in the past.
If you are anxious you are living in the future.
If you are at peace you are living in the present.”― Lao Tzu
This weekend we are in Park City, Utah to celebrate my wife’s birthday. Our kids are too young to ski or snowboard (and it’s too expensive for our financial situation right now), so we enjoy the shops, food, and hotel pool.
We’ve had a great time so far, but I’ve unfortunately spent too much of the trip stressed out. I was worried about all the things I wish I could do for my wife’s birthday and all the work that wasn’t getting done while I was enjoying this time with Family. But I didn’t give up and let the stress consume me.
Stress was my entire mental state, until last night just before bed.
It was about 10 pm, an hour past the kid’s bedtime, and they were bouncing around like it was 10 am. Usually, we let them have a little break and go to bed later when we’re doing something fun like this, but I knew that if they didn’t begin to calm down it would be another 2 hours before we slept.
Now, normally I get frustrated at how long it takes to get them to sleep. Particularly when I’m wanting to get up early the next day…
