Question

waiting painfully for something to happen​

Answer 1

Answer:

It may seem like forever, but usually in less than 30 minutes things start to move again. We get our turn. We move on. We might deal with waiting in anger, frustration, anxiety, or choose to use the time to practice a body scan, deep breathing, meditation in the moment, or read an article on our phone.

Answer 2

Explanation:

The pain comes from two things: the unknown, and/or dealing with something we don’t want to deal with in the first place.

Think of waiting to meet the love of your life. You might feel anxious, but it’s exciting. You don’t mind.

Now think of waiting to talk to your doctor after being told she wants to discuss your latest blood work results. The mind drifts to all the things that could go wrong.

Painful waiting inventory

So let’s start by taking an inventory of all the things that we don’t want to deal with, but we do anyway. Think of all the situations you waited for anxiously, and write them down. Some of the examples that come up for me:

Waiting for a service person (plumber, electrician, roofer) to come and deal with an issue,

Waiting to drop off someone at the train station or airport,

Waiting to see the doctor after a call about test results of loved ones,

Waiting to say goodbye to a loved one,

Waiting to know if a stock transaction went through at a favorable price,

Waiting for a response (email or phone) about a repair, recommendation I made, or to check on my family,

Waiting to go to a meeting or event.

Now let’s dig deeper.