Humility with Self
At the conscious level of your mind there are thoughts. Some thoughts are fleeting, some turn into daydreams. Creating an awareness of those thought patterns can help you discern the things that you can change in your life to make it more positive and peaceful. Living the Virtues Series is a blog series that I started earlier this year. Each month, I take a look at a different virtue; how to implement it into your life. I absolutely believe you can attain positive results from using the daily affirmations. The thoughts that are repeated through your conscious mind stick to the subconscious therefore creating new neural pathways and patterns. Humility is the virtue that I have assigned for the month of November. This week, I am writing about humility as it applies to yourself.
The quote I chose today is from Henry Ward Beecher: “Pride slays thanksgiving, but a humble mind is the soil out of which thanks naturally grow. A proud man is seldom a grateful man, for he never thinks he gets as much as he deserves.” I am sure that when you were reading that quote, a person (with immense pride) immediately popped into your head. Pride is all around us. Each of us has a certain level of pride in our character. I think that the person Beecher refers to as a proud man is one who walks around with a chip on his shoulder. Excessive pride in a person is noticeable not only in their outwardly appearance, but also by what he says or does. Do you think that person is happy? I think not. Unreasonable pride is the person that thinks he is not getting as much as he deserves. The keyword is “thinks.” After all, if a person is capable of having over 60,000 thoughts a day, how many of them are detrimental to the peacefulness and awareness in his or her life? If you let it, those feelings of inadequacy will devour your happiness.
Humility is an interesting virtue. It is not as clear-cut as honesty. Some might even say that there is a selfish nature to humility. I’ll save that dissection for another time. Right now, I’ll focus on humility as it pertains to yourself. It is indeed the humble that possess wisdom. As it states in Proverbs, with pride comes disgrace. A lot of people will tell you that you need a modicum of pride but I think those people confuse pride with self-confidence or self-worth. Let us not forget that it was pride that fell an angel.
If pride slays thanksgiving, pride cripples gratefulness. Have you ever noticed how ungrateful people are miserable? Isn’t life too short not to take the present moment and make it as fulfilling as possible? A humble mind is someone who is unassuming in attitude and behavior. Humility is knowing your place in the grander scheme of things. Humility is a direction, not a destination. I’ve never heard someone say, “I used to be proud. Phew! Glad that part of my life is over.” Have you? I think it’s because humility is extensive in that it needs to be consciously practiced daily. I am glad that we have grace because I have not met one person that can stand before me and claim absolutely humility.
I think of the detriments of being filled with pride and it has the potential to eat at the very fiber of our beings. It creates a miasma of despair, even death, not in the literal sense, but in your feelings and emotions towards yourself and others, human or otherwise. Having humility is a natural state of thanks. It’s being able to go about life with a grateful attitude and never lose sight of that. Humility turns our affections outwardly. Through humility you can feel good about where you stand in life in this present moment.
So here are the seeds of suggestion. These little nuggets of positive intentions will help you implement humility in your life. Each week, I give you these suggestions to help you form the beginnings of change into your life. Practice these affirmations on a daily basis. Your affirmations for this week are: “I seek humility by accepting myself.” “I let go of pride and replace it with a healthy esteem.” “My ego is under control and I work on making a conscious effort towards humility.” “I am transforming into someone who practices humility.” Each day when you practice these you are implanting positive thoughts into your subconscious. Humility as it pertains to yourself is a difficult virtue but necessary to transform your life to a more peaceful nature. Thanks for reading. InJoy your day!