Are you finding it difficult to be patient? How are you tolerant of a world that isn’t going the way you want it to go?
- Definitions
- Tolerance is a personality trait. It reflects an attitude of open-mindedness, an acceptance of the behavior, beliefs and values of other. It is a term that is associated with psychological resilience which arises from the ability to tolerate stress of various forms without negative consequences.
- Patience is the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.
- Eric's acronym PISO: pain is inevitable, suffering is optional. (He used to write it on his hand.) Patience and tolerance may be an antidote for suffering.
- As usual, we spend some time sharing how the negatives appear in our lives: impatience, intolerance, lack of restraint, and an “imaginary sense of hurry”.
- Eric's HP has a sense of humor, giving him impatiens flowers for his window box, when he needed to be reminded about patience.
- How do we cultivate patience and tolerance?
- Reminders from our slogans and sayings:
- How important is it?
- One day at a time
- Is it worth my serenity?
- WAIT – Why am I talking?
- Live and let live
- Easy does it
- LOVE – Let others voluntarily evolve.
- We played out a scene from Kung Fu where “young grasshopper” is schooled about being fully present.
- As usual, we have some quotes
- Be not afraid of growing slowly. Be afraid of standing still. Chinese saying
- Patience is the key to paradise. Turkish proverb
- If you understand, things are just as they are. If you don’t understand, things are just as they are. Zen Koan
Readings and Links
We read from In All our Affairs – Becoming Entirely Ready – pg 130 and Courage to Change, Jan 1.
We discussed a couple of articles: Who first said “Patience is a Virtue”, and The Power of Patience.
Upcoming topics
A topic idea from a listener: How do we keep our meetings focused on recovery in difficult times? When life is hard, it is easy to spend our time talking about our problems. We come to meetings for recovery, so how do we keep the focus of the meeting positive? Please call us at 734-707-8795 or email feedback@therecovery.show with your questions or experience, strength and hope. Or just leave a comment right here.
I’m a recent, grateful member of al-anon. I’ve started my recovery work on step 1 with my sponsor. I recently found your podcast and love your show. The information and insights have been very helpful. Thank you so much for the work you do.
I’m also enjoying participating in online meetings and heard on one of your shows that you host your own meeting. Is it possible to join and if so how do I find it?
Many Thanks