Why do I have less patience every day?

Why do I have less patience every day? The world seems to advance before me with the slowness of a pachyderm and that slowness makes me desperate. Nothing I hope for happens, the goals set on the horizon are rarely met and what’s worse, I feel trapped in a vortex in which everything revolves around negativity and frustrated expectations.

Do you know this feeling? You are not the only one. There are many people who experience this psychological reality, who complain of that pain in their jaw when containing tension, who feel an emptiness in their stomach and their mind more nervous and ruminative than usual. Impatience, Kafka said, is the fruit of all human errors. However, sometimes this reality is motivated by triggers that are as complex as they are particular.

Sometimes, one can define oneself as having a patient and relaxed personality, but suddenly, and due to certain circumstances, that approach becomes deformed and exhausted. It is then that unease and discomfort emerge in which endurance, hope and even optimism already fade. For what is this? What explains this situation?

Reasons why I have less patience every day

Defining what impatience is is quite easy: it characterizes the person who is unable to wait for something without getting nervous. Also to those who lack the ability to carry out tasks without losing their cool. Now, everyone knows what it feels like and what happens when this dimension takes control. What is no longer so clear is why.

Why are we impatient? Why are there times when it is more difficult to tolerate waiting, to accept other people’s habits or to assume that things do not always happen as we wish? It is true that there are pure-bred impatient people. People who always show this pattern of behavior. However, sometimes we surprise ourselves by feeling like we are missing this dimension.

We analyze why.

Stress and an overactive amygdala

There are times when external demands far exceed the psychological resources we have available. Work or the lack of it, family, the weight of uncertainties, frustrated goals, etc., plunge us into a state of high stress. In these circumstances, the brain’s amygdala, that region linked to emotional processing, begins to be more hyperactive than normal.

This results in a feeling of constant threat.. In filtering each event, circumstance and stimulus from distrust, and we could even say from fear. All of this causes our mental focus to be tinged with anxiety and not calm, with the need for urgency and not a relaxed look.

Depression and lower serotonin level

Why do I have less patience every day? What also makes me feel more irritable and have a hard time finishing things or even getting on with them? Many times, depression can follow this psychological state. Thus, in a research work published in the journal Current Biology something interesting was demonstrated in this regard.

Dr. Zachary Mainen and his team at the Champalimaud Center of the University of Lisbon (Portugal) discovered a relationship between low activation of serotonin neurons and lack of patience. As we well know, these nerve cells and their neurotransmitter are related to well-being, motivation, ability to achieve, and happiness.

Thus, a low level of this neurochemical component is mainly linked to depressive disorders. Therefore, if we notice that we are increasingly lacking patience, that apathy is eating away at us and that sleep or eating disorders appear, it is advisable to consult with a professional.

Why do I have less patience every day? Accumulation of frustrated hopes

There is an undeniable fact that we have all experienced firsthand: Today, we need to be more patient than ever. Nowadays, achieving a goal requires much more perseverance. The achievement or completion of our projects takes more months than a few years ago. Emotional relationships and social life in general are also more challenging.

And that vision, that panorama often fills us with bitter frustrations. So, when one carries behind him more than one failure, more than one goal lost along the way or dream vanished, It is common to wonder inside “Why do I have less patience every day?” The accumulation of frustrated experiences ends up damaging the muscle of calm, tolerance, that internal balance that gives us moderation and reflection.

Reversing the process, that is, going from impatience to patience is not easy, but it is not impossible either. Because the good news is that The art of patience can be trained. Thus, something we must understand is that we cannot advance time to make things move faster. It is also not possible to manipulate reality, events or people so that everything is the way we want it to be.

We are first forced to assume that we are not in control of almost anything. Also that the world is fallible, as are those around us and, in turn, ourselves.

Thus, learning to be more patient involves nurturing hopefor assuming that although things, sometimes, are not as we want or expect, this does not mean that in other future circumstances, they will become so.

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