MIND & SOUL

What is the meaning of Humility? 4 Reasons to practice Humility in life.

Growing in life also means upgrading your vision to reach and connect with your higher self. As I explored the universe within, I encountered yet another fascinated concept of “Humility”. A quality when cultivated, evolve our perception, weakens our ego and brings peace and spirituality but what is the meaning of Humility?

Humility is the state of having low self-regard of oneself: the attitude of believing that you aren’t better or special than others: the lack of pride and vanity in person and if to define it with a quote;

“True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.” – Rick Warren

It’s not a paradox. Authentic humility is far different from false humility. Thinking of yourself less or being modest is not the same as having insecurities and inadequacy of oneself — that’s false humility. We can’t develop humility unless we are satisfied with our being first and when required, any negative habit or behaviour can be changed without making a noise. In contradiction, when a person carries pride, achievements and ego with himself also lose modesty because any person who believes they are superior and recognize no flaws in their behaviour also cannot grow in life.

Why do you need to practice humility?

Think of it this way › Our mind is wired to revisit everything we do, whether it’s our accomplishments, downfalls, or big or small decisions. It’s constantly picking out the bits and small things from our everyday life, either criticizing it or praising it and there’s nothing wrong with it but often, we fail to look at the bigger picture because we are constantly criticizing ourselves, always judging ourselves. We need to rewire our program otherwise It’s hard to cultivate humility because it doesn’t manifest on its own.

If we zoom out and look around us, we have so much to be grateful for. Grateful for the experiences that we have acquired over the years; Grateful for the loving family and friends who has always supported us; Grateful for the earth beneath us and the air we breathe; Grateful for the beating heart in our chest that has kept our body alive; Grateful to live another day to make a difference that we wish to see. See, it’s completely natural to forget how lucky we are and take our gifts for granted and act entitled.

But the truth is- nothing is ours in this world, not even this body, isn’t it? Now with that in mind, would you not want to be more gentle, kinder, more loving and more grateful for everything around and within us? Cause we might have nothing to lose but we got so much to gain.

Our mind keeps finding ways to distract us or to keep us occupied because guess what, Our brain loves familiarity and subconsciously, it doesn’t want to visit new or uncomfortable realisation and that’s okay, you are not alone in this. What’s important is to live with awareness, to sow the seed of humbleness in our brain and nourish it. Give yourself space and if feasible, write down all the things that you are grateful for in a journal, come back to it every day and add another thing on that list that you are thankful for.

What changes over time if we cultivate and practise humility? Here are a Few beautiful reasons to do so:

Our Ego doesn’t speak as much as it used to:

As legend said ” Arrogance is the biggest enemy of humanity” It’s the barrier in our path of growth that doesn’t leave space for reflection and without reflecting, how will we make our relationship better with ourselves and the people we love?

Pride and superiority discourage us from connecting to people around us because we think we are better than others. It gives a loud voice to our ego which not only hurt people but questions their abilities and potential. Who are we to judge someone else? to hurt people’s self-esteem? To look down on anyone and everyone BUT ourselves? to find faults in their character? –a tiny being? it also destroys us because we won’t be able to reach new heights, achieve bigger things as we are too busy criticizing others and praising ourselves.

The ego lives within our mind, it’s not possible to tame it down in a few days or weeks rather it’s a work of a lifetime but let me assure you, if you stop your ego once from saying things, it will be easier the next time and so on. Remind yourself every day how unnecessary ego is and I promise, it will change things.

Praise others and criticize Yourself:

Humility teaches us to be more open and comfortable with our mistakes and setbacks. We aren’t trying to portray a perfect picture to the world and to ourselves which only showcases our strengths and no weaknesses because that isn’t the true picture right? As we practice humility, we realise our weaknesses is the area for personnel growth if we work on them without judging ourselves for having them.

Imagine if we lock our ego in a safe for a day, How different our day will go? how different our conversation will be with people around us? In the same way, if we practice non-judgement of no one but ourselves, Our relationships get better with others because now, we give ourselves a chance to understand them. We start to appreciate things that we never noticed before. Because now, We choose to be grateful rather than being bitter.

Deeper Honesty :

When we don’t have built up fears and surrender our facade, we get a chance to be more truthful about our dreams and disappointments. Being utterly honest about our flaws and reflecting on them to persuade goals that inspire us because when we follow our passion and invest our hard work in it, we contribute to the world and serve by doing what we love.

At the end of the day, We all are in this world to serve our higher purpose and humility only brings us closer to our purpose.

Profound and meaningful relationships:

Our relationship with the people we love can also show you a true picture of ourselves. How do we maintain most of our relations? Do we behave entitled and get what we want? Do we give space and create a comfortable environment for our companions to express themselves? Do we respect them and their thresholds?

Humility first understands and then seek to be understood. – It’s so important to understand that cause when we feel angry or frustrated, it’s easy to act selfishly and blame the reason on our partner or a family member. Without understanding them, we expect them to understand us first, does it sound right to you?
Our inflated ego obstructs our path of the right discussion, sowing weed in our precious relationships.

Humility cultivates an appreciation of your differences instead of seeing them as an obstacle. It fills us with patience and lessens our ego and pride. It teaches us to forgive better and love passionately. It demolishes our unreasonable guards so we can be our authentic selves and can inspire others to do so as well.

Cultivating Humility is the journey of within, it doesn’t pay attention to external factors trying to destroy it, rather it comes back to you in quiet hours and leaves you with energy to live better, to do better. Just remember to have patience and not to be hard on yourself if you slip up cause humility has patience for you if you are enough patient for it.

I would love to know your views on this post. I hope you liked it. I would love to encourage you to check out another similar post “The Are of Detachment and 5 means to achieve it

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