The Hospital of the Mind

 Hello!

I know last week's post was a bit heavy, so this week, I wanted to tackle another angle of patience that is near and dear to my heart: Patience and How it Affects Mental Health.

If you've followed my blog for awhile, you know that I struggle a lot with both anxiety and depression. As a kid, I never thought I would be dealing with either, but it happened. 

Lately, I've been fascinated by just how much impatience takes a toll on the mind and body. 

Did you know that impatience can raise your blood pressure, raise your cortisol levels and adrenaline? When these are raised, your body enters a fight or flight response and your stress levels raise. When your stress levels rise, your body is prone to physical illness as well as mental illness.

Many illnesses start in the mind. It controls more than we realize. And no, I'm not saying it's all in your head. That saying is one that has been going around for far too long in my opinion. It basically means that the sick person is making it all up. Which, I admit, can happen, but I'm not here to talk about that.

My point is that our thoughts control our actions and since our mind is where it all starts, it's our minds that are too often the first casualties.

One of the things I didn't think too much about until someone mentioned it, is just how much impatience rears its head because of a lack of satisfaction. 

When you are dissatisfied, you look for short cuts to what satisfied you. When we take shortcuts, what we are really saying is that the wait isn't worth it. We want things now and we want them to match our expectations. When things fail to satisfy, disappointment follows.

The Bible says, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life."  A sick heart mirrors a sick mind. When we don't get what we expect, depression and anxiety are right around the corner. We've put all of our hopes and dreams into one carton, and when things fall through, our dreams crash and burn along with the rest. 

So, now what? Am I telling you not to have hopes and dreams? By no means. Dreams are very important to me. Hope is necessary to survival. But we need to be careful where we place our hope. We need to be careful of how much importance we put in our dreams. We shouldn't sacrifice patience on the altar of our dreams. 

Patience like patients is found in the hospital, but while one is sick, the other is the medicine. The medicine in the hospital of the mind. 

Having patience means that you realize that the problem is bigger than yourself. If you could fix the problem yourself, you'd fix it now. Realizing that you must have patience, means waiting. It means slowing down, relying on someone or something else and giving your body and your mind a chance to breathe. When you do that, you find satisfaction, and that is worth the wait. 

If patience is the medicine, God is my doctor. 

As a Christian, being patient means I cannot fix my own problems. My satisfaction, my hope is found in God alone. My dreams belong to Him. When I look to other things for satisfaction and peace, my heart is worried and stress takes a toll on my mind, but when I give everything to Him, I find I can breathe and relax. This doesn't mean that I sit on my hands and do nothing, but it means that it's not all up to me. 

Until next time...

Julia Garcia / Arysta Henry