Patience Hobbies

Hobbies and Patience

When used timely, patience is a beneficial skill that can help us avoid unnecessary stress and make better decisions. Hobbies can cultivate mindfulness, helping us become less impatient. Hobbies that require patience can help us practice it directly.

Defining Patience

According to several definitions, patience is:

the ability to wait, or to continue doing something despite difficulties, or to suffer without complaining or becoming annoyed. —Cambridge Dictionary
bearing pains or trials calmly or without complaint. — Merriam-Webster
the propensity to wait calmly in the face of frustration or adversity. — The Journal of Positive Psychology

Is Patience a Virtue?

A lot has been said in the praise of patience, but is it justified?

If we look at its definitions we can easily see that patience can be destructive. Patience can, for example, keep us in a toxic situation, at work, with friends, or in the home.

Patience needs either a reason or necessity to become a virtue.

It was possibly religion that put patience independently on a virtuous pedestal. In a religious context, reason or necessity can always be provided by the transcendent.

Patience was significantly related to spiritual transcendence and to religious behaviors
Patience as a virtue: Religious and psychological perspectives | American Psychological Association

Timely Used, Patience Can Be Beneficial

Even though patience isn’t inherently virtuous, it can still be a great asset in many situations. It can help us avoid unnecessary stress, make better decisions, and overall better manage ourselves.

We show that patience is a key determinant of subjective well-being differences between countries.
Patience and subjective well-being | Taylor & Francis

But, as beneficial as it can be, it is hard to stay patient.

In general, people are just very impatient.
Humans Are Impatient, Even Down to Seconds – Neuroscience News

Can Our Patience Be Improved?

Yes, our patience can be improved. Following a behavioral approach we can practice patience directly.

Think of it like a muscle — the more you work it out, the stronger it gets […] Patience is completely something you can grow, and something you need practice to do well. Anyone can improve if they try.
Dr. Debra R. Comer, PhD

But such a superficial practice might have its limits.

We can instead take a more essential, holistic approach: trying to understand what it is that makes us impatient.

Patience and the Self

The answer lies within us.

Our perception of ourselves and of the self is the source of our impatience. Not being self-confident and self-sufficient, we constantly search for external meaning.

We, for example, feel that the package we are impatiently awaiting is the only thing missing from our lives, the one thing that will complete us and finally make us happy.

This is, of course, not the case.

Mindfulness, Patience and Hobbies

Mindfulness can help us cultivate a healthier sense of self, becoming less restless and less impatient. Mindfulness can also help us discern which situations require patience and which require action.

Hobbies can cultivate mindfulness, helping us become less impatient. More specifically, hobbies that require patience can help us directly practice it.