I am sitting in the hospital watching the people around me.
It’s a long day of waiting.
Most of the people here are outpatients awaiting treatment. They come from all backgrounds, are of all ages and diverse social backgrounds. Illness doesn’t discriminate.
I people watch. Not because i’m nosey but because I genuinely find people interesting. These days I also have a professional interest.
I’m sitting thinking about how our personality affects our health. If you consider the very word “patient” you can already see that some people are more suited to illness than others.
Patience is not something that comes naturally to me. Its a personality thing. Waiting isn’t good for me. And everyone around me is waiting. Waiting for treatment. Waiting for news. Waiting for results. I’m aware that my personality is not exactly helpful when it comes to sicknesses, therefore, I began to find out about herbs here and learned how good some herbs can be to prevent certain diseases.
For all those people who share my personality trait, making them wait is positively cruel. It’s stressful. It induces stress.
Now other personality types are ok with waiting. They are naturally furnished with patience.
Patience however, is not a virtue, it’s a personality thing. The amount of patience you have is determined by your personality type.
It’s ok to be impatient. Simply knowing this and accepting it will help. Is it not impatient people who try new ideas? If it weren’t for an impatient person would we have bothered to invent transport that moved faster than walking speed?
Impatience isn’t always a bad thing. Perhaps instead of having an outpatient department someone like me will create an impatient department.
