How to Wait Well in the Meantime and In Between Time

“Patience is not simply the ability to wait – it’s how we behave while we’re waiting.” ~ Joyce Meyer

When I was a little girl, my grandmother taught me how to bake cakes. After I mixed the batter and poured it into greased and floured pans, I’d place the pans in the oven, and then I’d wait. I’d want to check every five minutes to see if the cakes were rising. But my grandmother taught me to set the timer and let the cakes bake.

What my grandmother knew is that I had done my part. I mixed the batter with the right ingredients. I set the oven to heat at the right temperature. I greased and floured the pans, filled the right amount of batter in them, placed them in the oven and set the timer. Then, all that was left to do was to wait and trust that the oven would do the rest.

My grandmother also knew that it was best I left the kitchen to resist the temptation of opening the oven door every five minutes and ruining the cakes. While the cakes were in the oven, I’d read a book, finish my homework, or visit with a friend in the neighborhood. In other words, I’d get on with other things in life. When the cakes were ready, my grandmother would call me back to the kitchen. I’d remove the cake pans from the oven and wait again for them to cool before I put icing on them.

But after all the wait, I got to eat delicious cake with my grandmother.

Little did I know then that the lessons I learned while baking cakes would be reminders of the value of waiting well in many other important life situations.

Perhaps you are in a waiting period now. Maybe you’re waiting to find your life partner. Maybe you are waiting to become pregnant after several failed attempts. Perhaps you’re waiting on a diagnosis or for your healing from a disease or injury. Or maybe you’re waiting for a family member to overcome an addiction, anxiety, or depression. Perhaps you are waiting on a job offer before you deplete your dwindling savings.

Even if the cause or object of your waiting is less harrowing, for example, waiting to know if you’ve passed an important entrance exam, or if you’ve been preapproved for a home loan, or if you will be promoted or not. It doesn’t matter. Waiting is not easy. Waiting on answers to your prayers or for a breakthrough for yourself or a loved one is hard. It can take a toll on your mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual wellbeing, if not more. Every minute of waiting feels exponentially longer than its actual time. Days can feel like weeks, weeks like months, and months like years

What can you do to wait well in the meantime and in-between time? This is the time between two events. The time between when you found out there was a problem and the time it is resolved. The time between when you first asked the question and when you received the answer. The time between setting the goal and achieving it. The space between ideation and manifestation.

To wait well means to continue looking toward the future while living in the present. It was me reading a book or finishing my homework while the cake was baking in the oven. It is you continuing to practice self-love, nurturing meaningful relationships in your life, and pursuing other interests even as you are waiting for your soulmate. It is you eating nutritiously, exercising, and practicing mindfulness and positive affirmations, even while you’re waiting on a diagnosis or a report of your healing.

6 Tips to Wait Well in the Meantime and In Between Time:

1. Change your perspective on what it means to wait.

Waiting well is not passive or idle time. It is not a time for you to sit back and do nothing. You have a life to live, important priorities and interests, and other meaningful relationships. Stay actively engaged in living “faithfully where you are right now.”

2. Focus on what is within your control.

Just as in baking a cake, there are things you can do and there are things outside of your control or ability. Doing your very best with what is within your control is all you can do.

“It is in the middle, the not yet, the in-between, that God does some of His greatest work.” – Jeanne Takenaka

Trust the process.

3. Spend time in prayer and meditation.

For many, faith is a powerful force to help them see beyond the current circumstance. In faith, we have hope and an unexplainable belief that all things work in our favor and all will be well. My mentor shared this with me:

Fear knocked on the door. Faith answered. No one was there.

As we increase in faith, we decrease in fear.

4. Keep your vision in front of you.

I’m a believer in the power of creating a vision or mental image of what we want to manifest. If it’s your soulmate, a healthy child, a healed family member, or a job promotion, whatever you are waiting for – see it first in your mind’s eye and believe it within your heart. Take steps toward the vision and remain open and flexible to the outcomes. We can’t control the outcome, but we can always choose our response and adapt to whatever happens. Keep a positive mindset.

5. Surround yourself with positive and supportive people.

When we are waiting for an answer to prayer or a breakthrough, we need people around us who will hold space for us, cheer us on, and talk us through the times when we feel like giving up. Set and maintain boundaries that protect you from negativity and other energy vampires.

6. Stay present.

Each moment and every experience have something valuable to teach us. Waiting is not barren or void of meaning. It is a mistake to think of waiting as “nowhere” on your way to “somewhere.” The meantime reminds us that there are things in the present we can learn, do, and appreciate. Gratitude is appropriate in every season and especially while waiting.

“Waiting pulls us into the present unlike any other experience of time. In the waiting, we realize that this moment is meaningful as it exists, not as some step toward a future moment. Waiting is present tense, and its meanings are full of the potential to transform the ways in which we see the world. Each moment is its own experience and its own fulfilment.” – Jason Farman, How to Wait Well, Psyche

Use these tips to practice waiting well. You will find the waiting becomes easier. And on the other side, you will discover that you have grown in self-discipline, fortitude, patience, faith, and acceptance.