Before we start talking about how to get rid of pride, let's first deal with the concept itself. This word usually means exorbitant pride, arrogance, selfishness, arrogance, etc. Everyone roughly knows what pride is, but rarely does anyone recognize it in themselves, and if they notice, they do not see any danger in it and, moreover, are not going to fight it. But sooner or later it will make itself felt and bring its terrible results.
How to get rid of pride: Orthodoxy, Catholicism
Pride in Orthodoxy is included in the eight sinful passions along with gluttony, fornication, greed, anger, sadness, despondency and vanity.
In Catholicism, pride is one of the seven major sinful passions along with gluttony, fornication, greed, anger, despondency and envy.
Before givingthe answer to the question of how to get rid of the sin of pride, it should be noted that pride and pride are not at all the same thing. Pride is, in general, the most common property of any sinner. We all fall into pride from time to time. Pride is that great degree when this sinful passion turns into a dominant characteristic of a person and fills it. These people usually do not hear anyone, they say about such people: “There is a lot of pride, but little intelligence.”
Islam of Pride
Pride is when a person boasts before the Creator of his achievements, forgetting that it was from Him that he received them. This disgusting quality makes a person too arrogant, he begins to believe that he himself can achieve everything without the help of God, and therefore he never thanks God for everything he has.
And how to get rid of pride? Islam, by the way, is also of the opinion that pride is a great sin that causes a number of other sins.
According to the Qur'an, a genie named Iblis refused to obey the order of Allah and prostrate to Adam. The jinn said that he was better than a man because he was made of fire and not clay. After that, he was cast down from heaven and swore to lead believers astray.
How to recognize the sin of pride? How to get rid of it?
Pride grows on well-being, not when everything is bad. In euphoria, it is almost impossible to notice. But when it grows, it will be stoppedalready very hard. She plunges a person into the illusion of her greatness and then suddenly throws him into the abyss. Therefore, it is better to notice it earlier, recognize it and, accordingly, begin an uncompromising struggle with it. Let's pay attention to the signs of its manifestation.
Indication of pride
- Frequent touchiness and intolerance towards other people, or rather their imperfection.
- Constantly blaming others for your problems in life.
- Uncontrolled irritability and disrespect for other people.
- Constant thoughts about your own greatness and uniqueness, and therefore superiority over others.
- The need for someone to constantly admire and praise you.
- Absolute intolerance of criticism and unwillingness to correct their shortcomings.
- Inability to ask for forgiveness.
- Full confidence in their infallibility; the desire to argue and prove their worth.
- Insubordination and stubbornness, which lies in the fact that a person cannot adequately and calmly accept the lessons of fate.
When pathos grows, the joy in the heart fades, dissatisfaction and discontent come to replace it. Only now, some people, noticing in themselves all these negative signs of pride, begin to resist, while others become its victims.
Pride can be de alt with until it has grown to a gigantic size, figuratively speaking, has not taken power over the soul and mind. And we urgently need to get down to business, but how to deal with pride?
Methods of struggle
- No matter how high your achievements, you should try to be interested in people who have achieved more, who should be respected and learned from them.
- Learn humility, realize the greatness and infinite potential of every human soul. Accept your insignificance before God - the creator of all life on earth and in heaven.
- Don't take all credits and achievements for yourself. Always thank the Lord for everything good and bad that happens to you, for various trials and lessons. The feeling of gratitude is always more pleasant to experience than the feeling of contempt for others.
- Find a person who is adequate, honest and good, so that he constructively expresses his opinion about you, all the shortcomings noticed must be worked out and eradicated. And this is the best cure for pride.
- Your best experience should be passed on to people, try to help them disinterestedly with love. The manifestation of true love will surely cleanse the heart of pride. Those who do not start sharing their positive experiences with others in time will only increase the growth of pride and pseudo-greatness.
- Try to be sincere and first of all to yourself. Look for kindness in yourself so that you can not accumulate resentment in yourself, but find strength and courage in yourself to ask for forgiveness from those we have offended and learn to admit our mistakes.
Self-deprecation
Many are interested in another interesting question - how to get rid of pride and self-abasement. These are two extreme points, one concept implies high self-esteem,the other is underestimated. Let's talk about her a little.
If we already know about pride, then let's dwell a little on such a property as self-abasement, which is based on incorrect self-esteem and negative self-analysis. A person begins to belittle himself and his dignity in comparison with other people. He may not like his appearance and qualities, he constantly criticizes himself, they say, "I'm not handsome", "I'm fat", "I'm a slob", "I'm a complete fool", etc.
Tool
Self-deprecation, like pride, can be used as a tool to influence how others evaluate and perceive you, so as not to get a painful blow to your self-esteem.
In a situation of belittling oneself, a person himself is the first to criticize, scold and reproach himself, thereby he anticipates possible negative reactions to him from others. Such people really believe that they are worse than others. Shyness also shows a developed inferiority complex in a person.
Reasons for self-abasement
Where does it come from? Usually this can be some negative experience from early childhood, associated with the inability to evaluate yourself and others.
Self-deprecation becomes an inadequate way to protect yourself from potential emotional threats. It can be used as a mask that a person puts on in adulthood to hide behind it.
Self-deprecation, as a rule, really appears from early childhood, often this is due to the inability of the child to meet all high standards and expectationsparents, especially if the parents are some prominent people. They expect that their child must certainly meet their ideals, have talents and ambitious aspirations.
Mask of powerlessness
But the child does not reach the bar set by the parents, then he blames himself, considers himself mediocre, the wrong self-esteem comes to his mind, because the parents are unhappy with him.
When a child grows up, that's when the fear appears that he can never be as good as many people around him, that they can't like him, so success, happiness and love will never come to him. He begins to openly declare that he is a loser. A deep internal conflict is brewing and a chain of complexes is formed that hides under a mask that means "do not pay any attention to me" and "do not expect anything special from me." He is not accustomed to praise and does not accept it because he does not believe in himself.
Vanity
In parallel, another question arises - how to get rid of pride and vanity. And it's all - the links of one chain. Where there is pride, there is vanity. The meaning of this concept is that a person constantly wants to look better than he really is, he feels a constant need to confirm his superiority, which means that he surrounds himself with flattering friends.
The related concepts of vanity also include pride, pride, arrogance, arrogance and "star fever". A vain person is interestedonly his person.
Vanity is like a drug, without which, addicted to it, you can no longer live. Yes, and envy immediately attaches itself nearby, and they go hand in hand. Since a vain person does not tolerate any competition, if someone is ahead of him, black envy begins to gnaw at him.
Perishable Glory
As mentioned above, vanity, along with pride, is one of the eight sinful passions in Orthodoxy.
I would like to add to everything that vanity is when a person constantly strives for vain, that is, vain and empty glory. The word “vain”, in turn, means “soon and perishable.”
Position, high post, fame - things on earth are short-lived and unreliable. Any earthly glory is ashes and dust, just nothing compared to the glory that the Lord has prepared for His loving children.
Arrogance
Now we need to talk about how to get rid of pride and arrogance. You must immediately find out what arrogance is, then it will be easier to understand and cope with this passion. Arrogance is self-ex altation, arrogance and contempt for another person.
Summing up the discussion of how to get rid of pride, arrogance and the like, it should be noted that the fight against them is possible only after a person takes strict control over his behavior and words, starts doing good deeds, take care of the people around you as much as possible and not expect gratitude and payment for this.
We should try to get rid offrom thinking about your own significance, specialness and greatness. Look at yourself from the outside, listen to what you say, what you think, how you behave, put yourself in the shoes of others.
Pride, arrogance and vanity will prevent a person from living an independent and fulfilling life. And before they destroy you, start fighting them. Only then will you be able to rejoice and live in peace with yourself and with the world around you. And you will no longer want to blame anyone for your sins, and there will be a desire to thank the Lord for everything.
The world will shine with different colors, only then can a person comprehend the main thing: the meaning of life is LOVE. And only for her he should strive.
