As students that live in a face paced environment, we can sometimes find ourselves in tiny episodes of side walk rage on the concrete steps of campus. We all experience this so called pedestrian aggressiveness syndrome, especially when the person in front of us is taking a lazy stroll while we are trying desperately to make it to our 8 a.m. classes. We all take speed for granted now, but our world wasn’t nearly as fast a couple years back. Why are we so impatient?
Scientists believe that impatience is an evolutionary trait that prevents an individual from spending too much time on an activity that yields less than optimal pay-off. When things take longer than expected, we naturally get frustrated and time seems to stretch. Our internal clock loses calibration and our sense of time is then compromised. In a world where things are becoming increasingly efficient, this side walk rage or overall impatience will likely just get worse.
The next logical question becomes, what can we do about this impatience? Some classical solutions include meditation and mindful thinking. However, this may come as a difficulty for individuals who are already impatient. Psychologists suggest that we turn to developing a grateful perspective on our time-stretched situations. For example, when pedestrian aggression is an issue, try and come up with one thing that you are thankful for in the situation. This could be the sunshine, the friends that you get to see or even feeling warm on those dreary days. Impatience will come to each of us eventually, whether we experience it as side walk rage or line up rage. The way in which we handle these situations will greatly determine our emotional well being for the rest of the day. Why not take these episodes of impatience to increase our mental tolerance for slow days?
http://nautil.us/issue/22/slow/why-your-brain-hates-slowpokes