This new chapter begins at a different level of awareness. Questions are being asked, answers are being sought, sources of information are being checked and better questions are being discovered along the way. In this process, it becomes clearer whether the inner state is positive, neutral or negative, and life itself becomes a source of delight, while the threshold between one stage of life and the next seems too insignificant to truly matter.
This chapter is about patience and the gifts it can offer. Above all, patience brings inner peace, emotional balance and tranquility. Everything on earth changes and nothing lasts forever. With enough patience, what seems bad today can transform into something good tomorrow, and what is good can be enjoyed more deeply and consciously when it appears. Good moments are no longer treated as something ordinary, but as something special and worthy of gratitude.
Cultivating patience is not easy. In a beloved book, patience is described as the mastery of seven fundamental feelings: love, hate, joy, anxiety, suffering and fear. True mastery means:
This level of patience is possible only through acceptance: accepting change, accepting emotions and accepting the flow of life. It may sound simple and beautiful in theory, but in practice it is one of the hardest and most transformative journeys.
Patience is a mental skill that can be trained and strengthened day by day in a systematic way. It requires a clearly defined period of time dedicated to developing patience, emotional self-control and inner calm. There are many practical exercises that support this process, and it is important to choose or create the type of exercise that fits personal needs and to apply it consistently. Through repetition, discipline and perseverance, it becomes possible to build a more rational, calm and patient way of thinking.
Without patience, authentic mental clarity and rational thinking become almost impossible. Impatience leads to asking only a few obvious questions and then rushing to look for answers before the stage of inquiry and reflection is complete. In this way, only one or two quick answers are obtained and a conclusion is drawn too soon. These are often wrong conclusions, born from haste and lack of patience. When analyzing the positive and negative aspects of a situation, impatience keeps attention at the surface, without reaching the essence, and the result is a superficial analysis and superficial conclusions. Rational thinking can be taught and improved, but no one can be transformed without personal will, conscious practice and consistent effort.
One recommended exercise for training patience, concentration and emotional self-control is simple mental counting. Count silently in the mind up to one thousand. While pronouncing each number internally, imagine that the number is formed from liquid incandescent metal. At the same time, visualize that, as the number is spoken, it is struck with a hammer and sparks fly out. This combination of counting and visualization strengthens focus, attention, mental endurance and the ability to stay present with a single task.
A second exercise uses letters and develops patience through repetition and fine motor control. Choose a letter and write that same letter on a sheet of paper, as in the first years of learning to write. Fill the entire page with that letter. This simple activity trains perseverance, attention to detail and the ability to stay with a task until it is completed, even when it becomes monotonous.
Another, more pleasant exercise is to take a book and carefully check whether the page numbering is correct. This type of activity develops patience, attention to detail and the habit of checking information calmly and systematically, supporting a more organized and rational way of thinking.
The time allotted for these patience exercises should not exceed one hour, and the activity, even if it may seem monotonous, should remain enjoyable and approached with calm and curiosity. For the exercises to bring real results in developing patience, mental clarity, emotional balance and rational thinking, they must be practiced every day with consistency and commitment.
Everything passes in this world. Nothing remains the same forever, because the fundamental law of life is movement, transformation and continuous change. Balance is not a static state, but a fixed point found in motion, an inner stability that adapts to the rhythm of the world.
This inner balance requires effort, awareness and constant work. It is a conscious decision to move at a speed that matches the speed of change in life. When this attitude is cultivated, its implications are multiple and often extraordinary. Life can gain depth and quality, as if it were extended over hundreds of years, through a continuous process of inner regeneration that keeps pace with aging and external transformation.
One of the most important effects of patience in the face of change and acceptance is inner peace. When patience is present, perseverance naturally appears. Being wrong a hundred times no longer matters, because with enough patience and openness, the right answer eventually appears. Perseverance becomes inseparably linked to patience and turns into one of the most valuable inner tools of the human being.
Perseverance is also closely connected to personal choice and to the respect given to one’s own decisions. When a decision is made, the given word is honored, regardless of how long it takes or how many attempts are needed. If the promise is broken, it may indicate that the reasoning behind the decision was not fully clear or correct, and it becomes necessary to return to the initial choice and examine it again. Perhaps the decision was not 100% consciously assumed or fully accepted at a deep level.
Perseverance is, in reality, a continuous inner struggle: do not give in, do not stop, keep moving. Motivational messages often repeat the idea of never stopping and always moving forward, suggesting that only in this way can success be reached. In theory this sounds inspiring, but in practice it is incomplete.
Moving forward without pause excludes the reflective, rational human being. The road ahead is essential, but from time to time it is necessary to stop. To stand by the road and look back at the starting point, to see how far the journey has gone. To look ahead to the chosen destination and to reconnect with the meaning of the path.
The road can become more beautiful and meaningful than the destination itself. It is a path where pleasant and difficult experiences appear, where falling and rising are natural parts of growth and personal development. Looking back from time to time helps to remember identity and roots, to understand where everything started and how much has changed.
This conscious positioning in space and time needs to be done regularly. In this way, it becomes possible to rediscover more clearly what once was and what has been become, how transformation has taken place, and to accept this evolution. Change has already happened, reinvention has already taken place, and the journey can start again in the chosen direction, with more clarity and confidence.
Change often comes by itself, through circumstances and external events. However, change that springs from clear, conscious and assumed decisions is much more powerful, transformative and beneficial for personal growth, emotional balance and long-term inner peace.
Apart from breathing, nothing is truly urgent. Just breathe and allow all the thoughts that “must” be done to wait in separate mental boxes. Each thought can be taken out one by one, observed with awareness, analyzed calmly and then placed back into the box that sits on the shelf of the mind. Avoid opening several boxes at the same time. Work with them separately, close each box with intention and only then move on to the next one to support greater mental clarity and emotional balance.
Clearly decide when a box is closed so that the thought or idea does not reappear until there is a conscious decision to return to it. If two thoughts appear at the same time, notice why they are not in their boxes. It does not matter what kind of thoughts they are; what matters is that they are not organized and contained, which disturbs inner peace and makes it harder to stay focused and present.
Focus should rest on one thought and one box at a time. When attention is divided, nothing is truly resolved and each thought acts on its own, appearing whenever it wants. Mental order begins when the boxes are closed with clarity and intention, creating space for concentration, mindfulness and a calmer nervous system.
This inner organization requires patience and time. It calls for perseverance, because the effects are subtle or barely visible at first, even though they are already present. It may take days, weeks, months or even years to achieve a deeper sense of mental order and emotional balance. Yet this is the path that has been chosen, and the result is deeply valuable. It is a personal upgrade, a transformation of the inner world. The road is long and demanding, and only a few decide to walk it, but the reward is a calmer mind, greater self-awareness and a more peaceful life rooted in acceptance and inner stability.
Patience is essential for developing focus, mental clarity and sustained attention. Without genuine concentration, personal growth, learning and productivity remain slow and limited to very small steps. Every mental exercise that is consciously maintained over time strengthens the ability to focus, especially as the duration and regularity of the exercise increase. Consistent practice gradually builds stronger concentration, better self‑discipline and greater resilience to distractions.
A simple example of concentration training is the exercise of counting to one thousand, which usually takes about an hour. During this hour, the mind is deliberately directed toward a single, clearly defined goal, while other thoughts are gently set aside. This is a fully conscious and intentional process: it is chosen, planned and carried out personally, and the benefits in terms of focus, discipline and mental strength belong entirely to the one who practices it. Such focused attention exercises can be adapted and repeated regularly to steadily improve concentration skills.
The same principle of mental training can be applied to many daily activities, tasks and responsibilities. Even when the activity is not self‑planned, the way it is carried out and the results obtained still depend on the level of focus and the ability to avoid distractions. In practice, the result of this training is a better organized mind, improved time management and greater efficiency in everyday life. Concentrating on one task at a time supports higher quality work, reduces stress and creates a more structured daily routine.
Instead of constantly jumping from one thought to another and changing direction without a clear purpose, attention remains anchored to a consciously chosen idea or objective. Chasing multiple targets at the same time creates mental chaos, inner tension and decision fatigue. Through focus, thoughts are ordered, each idea is analyzed separately, and options are compared more calmly. Decisions gradually become clearer, more rational and more consistent with long‑term goals, supporting a more balanced, purposeful and mentally healthy life.
Hyperglycemia, i.e. increased glucose concentration in the blood and urine (glycosuria) above normal limits. Daily insulin doses can be reduced after long-term treatment with medicinal plants or teas only after medical laboratory tests have been performed.
Plants with weakly alkaline, anti-inflammatory, healing and soothing active principles are recommended. Infusions and decoctions are usually drunk unsweetened and preferably between meals.
Headaches with digestive and sensory disturbances
Mistletoe (Viscum album): a sacred plant in ancient cultures
Among many ancient peoples, and especially among the Druids, mistletoe (Viscum album) was revered as a sacred plant. The presence of this evergreen shrub on trees was interpreted as a sign from the gods, and the bird that circled around it was considered a messenger from heaven. Ceremonies...
Everything in life is transient, even if perception often refuses to accept this truth. The mind tends to see solid, organized structures that appear stable and eternal. They do endure, but only through constant change, transformation and adaptation. Sometimes change arrives suddenly and dramatically; at other times it unfolds slowly, almost imperceptibly, over centuries.
Cities, fortresses and ancient buildings are powerful reminders of the passage of time and the rise and fall of civilizations. At their peak, they seemed strong, durable and indestructible. The people who lived within their walls probably believed they would stand forever, that life there would always continue. It is unlikely they imagined that, a few hundred years later, only scattered ruins would remain and that perhaps no one would live there anymore.
The same illusion of permanence often appears when looking at a modern city, a country or even an entire civilization. They seem stable and lasting, yet they represent only brief moments in the long history of the planet. Earth may be 4, 6 or even more billion years old. From this immense span of geological time, humanity has clear knowledge of only the last few thousand years and scattered traces from earlier periods.
Human presence on Earth appears to stretch back a few million years, yet what is truly known represents only a tiny fraction of that story. In percentage terms, it may be around 0.01% of all human planetary history. This means that 99.99% of the past remains unknown, undiscovered or forgotten, even though humanity often claims to be an evolved and fully aware species.
The fact that almost all of history is missing from collective memory is another sign that everything changes and nothing remains the same. This broader perspective can be humbling, revealing how small each individual life is in the vast course of time. It can feel like both a gift and a curse to recognize this truth about impermanence and the continuous evolution of civilizations, cultures and beliefs.
Like any complete reality in this world, good and evil, joy and suffering, light and darkness all integrate to form a whole. Every step on this path can be seen through a different lens: if the present moment is difficult, it may be a sign that something better is being prepared. This is a positive attitude that can serve as a constant anchor, an inner orientation that does not ignore hardship but looks beyond it toward growth and transformation.
This positive attitude is closely linked to hope and patience. Hope should never be allowed to fade, even when circumstances seem overwhelming or uncertain. There is a familiar expression: all calculations have been made and there is only a 1% chance of success. Yet that 1% is still a real possibility, a door that remains open, regardless of the 99% chance of failure that stands beside it. In the long timeline of history, that small opening can be enough to change the course of events.
In the midst of constant change and uncertainty, choosing to maintain hope and to see the glass half full becomes a way of life. Focusing on what happens if success comes, instead of fearing failure, creates an optimistic and hopeful mindset. Life cannot be controlled in terms of what it offers, but attitude towards what is received and what is done with it can always be controlled.
Attitude is one of the few things that is not fleeting. It can remain consistently positive and optimistic, becoming a form of balance in motion. Deep down, there is a constant search for what does not change, and habits are proof of this search. Through habits, there is an attempt to protect against change and to preserve distinct characteristics and identity.
However, everything changes, and habits must also evolve, otherwise they lose their importance and purpose. A common mistake is trying to create something permanent out of things that are, by nature, temporary. Daily routines that seem to define identity are often attempts to force stability in an ever-changing reality.
What is practiced rationally is often something that is hoped to be acquired subconsciously at a mental and emotional level. Habits are meant to bring order, structure and inner peace. That is their true purpose.
Sleep is a simple example. Sleep does not happen at night just because sleep itself is enjoyable, but because waking up rested and recharged is needed. If there were a charger, like for a phone, that could fill the body with energy in an hour, sleep would probably no longer be of interest in the same way.
The body needs sleep in different proportions depending on age, strength, physical condition and many other factors. In reality, sleep is needed when tiredness appears, regardless of whether it is day or night. Yet, from a very young age, there is conditioning around time: bedtime, mealtime, walk time. This conditioning shapes the relationship with needs and natural rhythms.
Imagining life without access to time-measuring devices reveals how deeply time controls daily habits. Without a clock on a phone, laptop or TV, life would return to the natural system of day and night. The day would end when the sun sets and begin when it rises. Meetings would be arranged when the sun is high in the sky or when it sets, not at a specific hour.
There would no longer be fixed mealtimes or bedtimes. Eating would happen when hunger appears, and sleep would come when sleepiness arrives. Life without a watch would radically change the way needs, priorities and daily routines are perceived.
The real problem is not time itself, but access to it and dependence on it. The wearable watch can be seen as one of the most manipulative inventions, placing a constant obstacle between authentic desire and imposed obligation. It shifts focus from what is wanted or needed to what must be done according to the clock.
It is no coincidence that in many journeys of self-knowledge and personal development, abandoning instruments that show the time is recommended. Letting go of the constant measurement of time opens space for reconnecting with inner rhythm, genuine needs and a more natural, balanced way of living.
The things that truly last are not external circumstances, but the inner feelings, values, and attitudes that are consciously chosen. These are the elements that define identity and what matters most during times of great change. Habits alone do not define a person; they often limit and shackle. A chosen attitude, however, offers direction, clarity, and freedom.
Choosing attitude and personal growth becomes the foundation for lasting transformation. To be brave, it is necessary to choose courage and remain faithful to that decision, regardless of what happens or how things were in the past. The model to follow is not taken from the changing world outside, but from the inner vision of the mind.
By consciously choosing how to be, that way of being gradually becomes reality, as long as the decision is respected and maintained. Life often reflects imagination, so when a personal design is created within, that design becomes a guide for what can be. After deciding what to be and how to live, training, practice, and daily actions can align with that inner choice.
With time, patience, and perseverance, this process leads to real change and personal development. Everything in life is constantly changing, and through conscious decisions, it becomes possible to change with purpose instead of by accident. Choosing who to be becomes the starting point for meaningful transformation.