Be patient!

 People are designed to be impatient. We do not like slow elevators or slow internet connections. We do not like waiting in lines or waiting on the phone for the customer support representative. But impatience comes at a price. According to Dr. Amit Sood, a researcher at the Mayo Clinic, impatience can result in anxiety, illness, injury, loneliness and even death. “An episode of explosive anger, stress or impatience can increase your risk of heart attack and sudden death by two to eightfold for the next few hours.” Most of us know that stress increases blood pressure and heartbeat. But studies have also shown that impatient people have shorter telomeres—the structures at the end of chromosomes that protect the end of the chromosome from deterioration.

Impatience is linked to lack of control, uncertainty, and boredom—conditions we humans try to avoid. (Researchers gave test subjects—all men—the choice to sit alone and get bored, or to give themselves a painful electric shock. About 70% chose the electric shock.)

During this coronavirus pandemic, our patience is sorely tested. But Dr. Sood tells us that being patient is a choice and that the pandemic offers a “tremendous opportunity” to practice patience. If you’re not good at that, try learning to be resilient. “You do not have any bullets, you do not have any swords. You can’t fist-fight with this virus…You can empower your billions of immune cells to fight with this virus. And when you are resilient, your immune cells are stronger in waging that war.”

I am not a patient person. I don’t like waiting for golfers ahead of me to get out of the way. I’m impatient to make a play in Words with Friends rather than taking my time to look for the best move. But I think I am a resilient person. So maybe it all balances out. I hope.

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.