#246: Losing Your Patience? Here’s How to Get it Back | Dr. Kate Sweeny, Dr. Sarah Schnitker & Sharon Salzberg

This pandemic is a colossal test of our patience -- from dealing with family to interminably long wait times on calls with the unemployment office to just wanting this whole nightmare to evaporate so we can go back to the movies. We’ve got a special, two-part episode this week. In the first part, we bring on a pair of researchers who study patience. The good news: they have found that patience is a quality we can train and develop through meditation and other strategies, including cognitive reappraisal, transcendence, or just learning how to fake it until you make it. (Side note: we also fall into an interesting chat about the benefits of defensive pessimism versus strategic optimism.) After the researchers, we bring on legendary meditation teacher Sharon Salzberg for a deeper dive into how to use meditation to increase our patience, especially when it comes to interpersonal stuff (which, let’s be honest, includes other people and ourselves).  Our patience experts are Dr. Sarah Schnitker from the Psychology and Neuroscience Department at Baylor University, and Dr. Kate Sweeny from the Psychology department at the University of California, Riverside.

Where to find our guests online: 

• Dr. Kate Sweeny: http://www.katesweeny.com/
• Dr Sarah A. Schnitker: https://www.baylor.edu/psychologyneuroscience/index.php?id=950614
• Sharon Salzberg: https://www.sharonsalzberg.com/

Other Resources Mentioned:

• Wendy Wood University of Southern California (Habits Research)
• Richie Davidson Research on Pain and Meditation
• Walter Mischel Marshmallow Test

Additional Resources:

• Ten Percent Happier Live: https://tenpercent.com/live
• Coronavirus Sanity Guide: https://www.tenpercent.com/coronavirussanityguide
• Free App Access for Teachers, Healthcare, Grocery and Food Delivery, and Warehouse Workers: https://tenpercent.com/care 
• Get more focus and clarity by bringing mindfulness to your company with a team subscription to Ten Percent Happier! Visit tenpercent.com/work to learn more.