Is your patience in short supply too momma? I never seem to have enough of it and I wish there was a way to magically conjure up an endless supply. But, until that happens, lol, I wanted to share with you a hack I started using last year that has been a HUGE help for improving my patience.
While there are plenty of patience struggles throughout the day I was noticing that there are a small handful that happen pretty regularly and they’re around things that aren’t going to change; like getting out the door for school on time, brushing teeth before bedtime, etc. And by the way, when did brushing teeth become such a punishment anyway!? Lol.
Around the same time last year I started working on trying to create a daily gratitude practice, just once a day naming something I was grateful for. But, thanks to a rampant case of mom brain, I couldn’t for the life of me remember to do it! So, I decided to lean on the recurring alarm on my phone since my phone is always around anyway and it has a much higher probability of keeping me on top of this task that I do by myself.
So, I picked a time of day that I knew I was going to be short on patience and decided that would be when I would set a daily gratitude alarm. Because if I could pause for a moment and load up on gratitude before something I knew was going to be a battle, I’d be in a better position to be a little calmer and a little more patient.
Here’s how it worked for me:
- I noticed that every day (yup, EV-ER-Y day) I was losing my patience, or shouting, or yelling when it was time to start getting shoes on and get out the door for school. This! Was! Exhausting!!
- So I picked 7:30am each weekday for my gratitude alarm
- I opened my phone, went to the clock setting and created a new alarm called “Today I’m grateful for…”. I set it for 7:30am and to repeat each weekday (it’s 10am for weekends), and I picked a bright and sunny tone for the alarm too that’s only for this alarm
- Each morning my alarm would ring which not only alerted me that it was time to start getting shoes on, backpack, etc. but when I went to turn it off I would pause and mentally tell myself something I’m grateful for
- I’d take a deep breath after and then continue on with our routine to get out the door
I was so amazed at the change I was starting to see in myself being able to pause and load up on gratitude before something I knew would try my patience. I was able to slowly become calmer and more patient because I’d stopped the breaking point before I reached it.
And there was also a total surprise benefit to this too! A few weeks in, my then 4 year old had noticed the distinct tone of the alarm and that it was going off each morning and so she asked me what it was. When I told her it was my gratitude alarm and how it worked, she asked if she could do it with me. So she and I started doing it together each morning and now it’s part of our daily habits when we hear the tone. Even when we’re out and about and someone has their phone ring set to the same tone as our gratitude alarm, when she hears it she’ll say, “Mom! That’s our gratitude alarm!”.
I’ve recommended it over and over again to fellow moms that have used it and loved it too, so give it a try! And be sure to click here for even more hacks, encouragement, tips and tools to help you worry less, and a little mom humor thrown in for good measure, lol.