Cognitive Patience: The Ability To Process The World Without Haste

Have we lost cognitive patience? Have we left behind this valuable ability to understand and process our reality in a calm but profound way? According to several neuroscientists, the answer is “yes”.

This idea is increasingly present, especially if we reflect on the way we process much of the information that comes to us from social networks: quickly and without verification.

The term cognitive patience was recently coined by Maryanne Wolf, a cognitive neuroscientist and psycholinguist of brain development at the University of California. In his book, Reader, come home ‘ (free translation, Player, go home ), she explains something amazing what has happened to herself long ago.

Most readers today cannot read for a continuous hour without checking their cell phone several times. We have become impatient and are losing, more or less surprisingly, some of our ability to concentrate. In addition, Stephen King recently spoke of a growing phenomenon: audiobooks.

This format, made up of an easy and accessible resource, allows us to dedicate ourselves to our tasks while a pleasant voice reads us a book. The effort, therefore, is minimal. Cognitive patience in these cases does not at all refer to our ability to expect or delay a gratification. It actually defines the ability to calmly process information, a reality, an event.

It is this competence with which things can be given meaning after having gone deep into them. It is also having the ability to control to regulate interference, to focus on a goal without any hurry, free from pressure and knowing how to use this neglected muscle called attention to our advantage.

Let’s see more information on this subject.

Cognitive patience in danger of extinction

A phenomenon that is observed more and more frequently is skimming. It refers to the strategy based on a quick reading, in which we stop only at the beginning and end of a text or information. We retain the most superficial parts of what is before us, be it a book, an article, an instruction manual.

The opposite of skimming is scanning , that is, the meticulous analysis of each piece of information. These North American terms very well reflect a practice that is already observed in a part of the population, one that has already lost (or is in the process of losing) an essential competence: cognitive patience.

If we look at the world in a hurry, we fail to understand its secrets. If we are in a hurry to get quick information from anywhere in our midst, we may have a half-truth. What’s more, if we don’t use our analytical, critical and reflective skills, we will end up assuming false information or missing out on the most relevant nuances of our reality.

We must understand, therefore, that losing our cognitive patience makes us much more vulnerable to demagoguery. So, in a world obsessed with haste and orchestrated by information transmitted in a few seconds, we have a very clear obligation: to be prudent, demanding and meticulous.

Patience is concentrated strength and gives us wisdom

We live in a society that does not value patience. Important people who have power, for example, don’t wait, don’t stand in lines. In turn, since children we are taught that classic idea that if we want something, we must go after it. It’s true that determination is important, but it’s even more important to learn to be patient, to understand that success and wisdom take time.

• To activate and make use of our cognitive patience, we must first understand that being patient does not give us power over circumstances, but allows us to have more control over ourselves in any circumstance.
• Cognitive patience is also training that attitude with which you can look at the world through the eyes of a child. We must recover interest, curiosity, instinctive appreciation for details and subtleties.
• Our gaze, moreover, must be highly demanding. The demon of haste should not guide us, but the desire to know, to get our own truth about what we see, feel or read.
• It’s also interesting to know that cognitive patience is not a passive skill, quite the opposite. No process requires so much activity, open mind and dynamism.
• On the other hand, studies such as the one carried out at the University of Psychology in Pasadena indicate that the daily use of this tool allows us to reduce the risk of depression and other types of mood disorders.

This dimension is, in turn, the wisest answer we can make to the daily challenges of life. Because only if we are patient and learn to process the world unhurriedly and carefully, will we allow ourselves to appreciate its magical details, its grandeur and also its truths.

Let’s train our attention and the pleasure of calm. Remember that patience is, after all, focused strength toward a goal.