Full of Too Much Pride

Pride has been described as a spiritual cancer because it has the ability to quickly consume contentment and love, crippling our ability to humble ourselves and express empathy for others.

It can lead to an exaggerated opinion of our own importance and abilities, fueling an arrogant and vain personality that's going to be unappealing to many. It can also keep us from seeking to pursue and maintain peace with others, when we feel that they are in the wrong and that we ourselves have done nothing to apologize for.

When consumed with overwhelming feelings and ideas of pride, it lifts people up to operate with a sense of superiority over others.

Is someone more valuable as a human being because they are smarter? Have more money? More friends? I don't think so. Value is subjective after all and you don't have to allow others to determine your value for you. And when someone seeks to place such a value on an individual, it says more about them than it does about the individual they are trying to judge.

Every individual has the potential to provide value to others.

Being consumed with pride can easily stunt our education and keep us from learning more. We already know everything, after all, don't we? Pride fuels an artificiality, springing from the habit of thinking too highly of ourselves for too long. This doesn't mean that everyone should loathe themselves in an effort to embrace the opposite, because you aren't only left with two options being only self-obsession or self-hate. There is a choice that you can make for balance; pride can be swallowed.

It isn't unhealthy to be happy when we accomplish goals that we set for ourselves, or to feel that we are a human being deserving of respect from others, that we are valuable and can provide value to others. But pride can become more than that, it can keep us from admitting our mistakes, prevent us from pursuing peace, prompt us to continually unnecessarily compare ourselves to others, and can keep us from learning and asking questions.

Linking our happiness with our accomplishments and personal value also might not always be a good idea because it leaves us with the potential for feeling worthless when we aren't able to accomplish goals that we might set out to achieve. But just because you might not accomplish a goal that you set for yourself, doesn't mean you are any less valuable. Allowing money, friends, and degrees etc, to define who we are and determine our value is a great way to set ourselves up for a life of misery.

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