Pride makes a person think that he is better than others. We are not talking about heroic deeds or serious achievements. Proud people often do not have them. They simply exalt themselves to the skies, considering others to be mere dust. Because of this, communicating with them brings discomfort. And that's not all the difficulties. Such people face loneliness and lose inner harmony. Is it possible to improve the situation? How to get rid of pride, excessive pride and arrogance?
How to get rid of pride: Orthodoxy, Catholicism
Pride in Orthodoxy is one of the eight sinful passions, along with gluttony, fornication, greed, anger, sadness, despondency and vanity.
In Catholicism, pride is one of the seven main sinful passions, along with gluttony, fornication, greed, anger, despondency and envy.
Before answering 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 characteristic of any sinner. We all get proud 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 don’t listen to anyone, they say about such people: “There is a lot of pride, but little intelligence.”
Pride and pride - what's the difference?
Do not confuse pride and arrogance. Pride is a consequence of hard work to overcome oneself and achieve goals. This is confirmation of the value of your successes. This quality can and should be shown to others. It is not for nothing that the media often talk about heroic deeds that are worth being proud of.
It is noteworthy that there is pride in other people. For example, you can be proud that your spouse has climbed the career ladder and taken a responsible position. Or the child himself entered a prestigious university. There are many reasons to be proud. And not only for loved ones, but even strangers.
What else is the difference between pride and arrogance?
| Pride | Pride |
| Includes self-esteem, self-sufficiency, independence. | Includes envy, deceit, hypocrisy. |
| You can be proud of yourself and other people. | The person is focused solely on himself. Considers it beneath his dignity to communicate with others. |
| Encourages you to act, reach new heights, and believe in yourself. | Doesn't motivate action. Encourages you to undeservedly take credit for the successes of others. |
Interestingly, in Orthodoxy, pride is considered a great sin, which must be gotten rid of as soon as possible.
Islam is about pride
Pride is when a person boasts about his achievements before the Creator, 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 God’s help, and therefore he never thanks God for everything he has.
How to get rid of pride? Islam, by the way, also holds the opinion that pride is a great sin, which becomes the cause of a number of other sins.
According to the Koran, a genie named Iblis refused to carry out Allah's order and prostrate to Adam. The genie said that he was better than man because he was made of fire, not clay. After this, he was cast out of heaven and vowed to lead believers astray.
There is a prayer for pride - to St. Alexis, a man of God
There is a prayer for pride to the Monk Alexy, a man of God, which can be read at any time.
In a fit of anger or hot temper and hatred, you can read a prayer for pride to the Monk Alexy, a man of God
You can read a prayer in front of the icon of the saint:
Oh, great servant of Christ, holy man of God Alexis, your soul stands in Heaven before the Throne of the Lord, and on the earth given to you from above by various graces, perform miracles! Look mercifully at the people standing before your holy icon, tenderly praying and asking for your help and intercession. Stretch out your honest hand in prayer to the Lord God, and ask us from Him for forgiveness of our sins, voluntary and involuntary, healing for those who suffer, intercession for those suffering, consolation for the grieving, ambulance for those in need, and for all who honor your peaceful and Christian death and a good answer to the Last Thing. Judgment of Christ. To her, servant of God, do not disgrace our hope, which we place in you according to God and the Mother of God, but be our helper and protector for salvation, so that through your prayers we have received grace and mercy from the Lord, let us glorify the love of mankind of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, glorified in the Trinity and the worshiped God, and your holy intercession, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
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An indication of pride
- Frequent touchiness and intolerance towards other people, or rather towards their imperfections.
- Constantly blaming others for your life problems.
- 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 to criticism and unwillingness to correct one’s shortcomings.
- Inability to ask for forgiveness.
- Complete confidence in one's own infallibility; the desire to argue and prove one’s merits.
- Lack of humility and stubbornness, which lies in the fact that a person cannot accept the lessons of fate with dignity and calm.
When pathos grows, the joy in the heart fades and is replaced by dissatisfaction and dissatisfaction. Only some people, noticing all these negative signs of pride in themselves, begin to resist, while others become its victims.
You can deal with pride before it grows to gigantic proportions, figuratively speaking, before it takes power over your soul and mind. And we need to urgently get down to business, but how to deal with pride?
Signs of pride and arrogance
A proud person stands out from others. He is characterized by the following traits and actions:
- “I” and “Mine” often appear in his speech. He even divided the world into 2 parts. One is himself. The other is the people around you. Moreover, the latter are of no interest to him.
- He despises others and exalts himself. A proud person remembers other people only for comparison purposes. It determines how advantageous it looks against their background. In the fictional world, he is hundreds of times better than those who live around him. But even this does not give a feeling of real happiness.
- I am confident that I am right. It is useless to argue with a proud person. There is only his opinion. And it doesn’t matter that you bring a lot of disproving facts.
- Constantly judges others. Usually it goes like this: “But I would never do that.” These words apply to absolutely all areas of life.
- Gives advice when it is not needed. And before saying anything, he will also condemn and humiliate the interlocutor. Proud people do not care that no one is interested in their opinion in this situation.
- Doesn't admit mistakes. He blames them not on his loved one, but on others and circumstances.
- He doesn't know how to lose with dignity. A proud person will never admit that someone is better than him. Therefore, in any case, he will humiliate and insult his opponent.
- He speaks in a commanding tone. A rare occurrence is proud people speaking in a calm tone. They do not know how to control anger and other bad emotions. They are rude, rude, and raise their voices.
- They constantly brag. They are confident that their achievements are better than those of others. They try to prove it to others.
Fighting methods
- No matter how high your achievements are, you should try to be interested in people who have achieved more, whom you should respect and learn from.
- 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 credit for all the credit and achievements. 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 an adequate, honest and good person so that he can constructively express his opinion about you; all noticed shortcomings must be worked out and eradicated. And this is the best cure for pride.
- You need to pass on your best experience to people, try to help them selflessly with love. Showing true love will definitely cleanse your heart of pride. Anyone who does 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 have the opportunity not to accumulate grievances, but to find the strength and courage to ask for forgiveness from those we have offended and learn to admit our mistakes.
What is pride
Pride is the opposite quality of humility and modesty. Psychology, philosophy and ethics define it as the inability to compromise, to sacrifice oneself, one’s interests for the sake of another person. This is unhealthy pride, vanity.
A proud person always and everywhere flaunts his “I”. He undeservedly takes credit for his successes and achievements, while humiliating those around him. Requires praise, recognition, worship. He considers other people unworthy of his attention.
To put it in simple words, pride is blind, fanatical love for oneself, selfishness, and a feeling of arrogance.
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 - low self-esteem. Let's talk about it 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 merits in comparison with other people. He may not like his appearance and qualities, he constantly criticizes himself, saying, “I’m not handsome,” “I’m fat,” “I’m a slob,” “I’m a complete fool,” etc.
An arrogant person: who is he?
An arrogant person is a person who behaves dismissively and coldly towards other people. He puts himself above others and always considers only his own point of view to be correct. But he does not impose it on others. However, such a person requires the attention of other people and admiration for his qualities and actions. However, such a person, with his arrogant attitude, repels all those who want to get closer to him emotionally. Arrogance and pride do not allow him to tell someone about his problems. Such people are prevented by their self-esteem from opening up, asking for forgiveness, repenting of a negative act, and pouring out their souls to others. All this works against such a person, complicating his communication and life.
An arrogant person, when communicating with people even from his close circle, behaves coldly and sublimely. He wants to take a high position in society. For him this is very important and paramount. After all, he considers himself the best, worthy of success in all areas of life.
It is difficult for an arrogant person to understand that his arrogance, coldness, pride and inaccessibility build insurmountable barriers to his happiness and well-being.
Such people have feelings and attachments hidden far and deep in their souls. However, thanks to the manifestation of feelings and emotions, the individuality and originality of the individual are revealed. Only then will sympathy begin to arise, which will later become attachment. However, in our case, a person experiences fear of disappointment, which forces him neither to become attached nor to let anyone into his fortress of the inner world. This in turn does not allow him to be a spontaneous, friendly, natural and affable person.
His plans do not include humiliating others and imposing his opinion on them. However, pride and detachment harm relationships and provoke the other person to internal indignation and indignation.
gun
Self-deprecation, like pride, can be used as a tool to influence how others evaluate and perceive you, so as not to take a painful blow to your self-esteem.
In a situation of belittling oneself, a person is the first to begin to criticize, scold and reproach himself, thereby preempting possible negative reactions to him from others. Such people truly believe that they are worse than those around them. Shyness also shows a developed inferiority complex in a person.
Why is pride dangerous?
Having risen above the rest, a person stops developing. He is marking time or completely degrading. It seems to him that he has already reached the desired peak and he no longer needs to study and work on himself. Pride is the enemy of development and progress. A proud person is completely fixated on his personality, and it does not matter whether he has any merits or simply an advantageous position in society.
This is a harmful feeling that leads to contempt and hatred. A proud person is not able to adequately perceive someone else’s opinion; for him, there is only his own position, and it is the only correct one. Pride does not allow you to see the positive in others.
Causes of self-deprecation
Where does it come from? Usually this may be some negative experience from early childhood associated with the inability to evaluate oneself and others.
Self-deprecation becomes an inadequate way to protect against potential emotional threats. It can be used as a mask that a person puts on in adulthood in order to hide behind it.
Self-deprecation, as a rule, really appears from early childhood, often due to the child’s inability to meet all the high standards and expectations of the parents, especially if the parents are some outstanding 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 his parents, then he blames himself, considers himself mediocre, and incorrect self-esteem comes to his mind, because his parents are unhappy with him.
When a child grows up, that’s when the fear appears that he will never be able to be as good as many people around him, that they cannot like him, and therefore 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 hide under a mask that means “don’t pay any attention to me” and “don’t expect anything special from me.” He is not used to praise and does not accept it because he does not believe in himself.
Reasons for the development of pride
Like many other character traits, pride originates from childhood. The main reason for its appearance is improper upbringing. Imagine a situation where parents teach a child that he is the best, smartest, and smartest. And at the same time they do not punish him for his offenses. As a result, the child does not know how to listen and accept criticism. He considers himself ideal and does not see any flaws at all.
Of course, this does not mean that children cannot be praised. But you shouldn’t instill in them superiority over their peers. It will lead to the development of pride, inflated self-esteem, and excessive pride. Growing up, such a child will face a lot of difficulties. The first of them is misunderstanding in communication with other people. It is unlikely that anyone will want to put up with an orderly tone, constant boasting, and contempt.
There are 3 more reasons for the development of pride:
- Availability of talents. Some already in childhood exhibit extraordinary abilities that allow them to achieve success in any field in the shortest possible time. After receiving recognition in society, such people often consider themselves better than others.
- Aristocratic or special status. Let's say a person was born into a family of famous political figures or, for example, actors. Most likely, from childhood he will enjoy fame and popularity. But he will not achieve them himself. This will be the glory and high position of the parents.
- Low self-esteem. Surprisingly, inadequate self-esteem is also considered a cause of the development of pride. The person realizes that he could not achieve anything. Fearing ridicule from the outside, he begins to brag and take credit for the merits of others. And he doesn’t even think about how stupid and ridiculous such behavior seems.
Pride develops in rich, powerful people, and in poor, disadvantaged, humiliated people. Therefore, most often it is unfounded.
Vanity
At the same time, another question arises - how to get rid of pride and vanity. And these are all links of one chain. Where there is pride, vanity appears. The meaning of this concept is that a person constantly wants to look better than he actually is, he feels a constant need to confirm his superiority, which means he surrounds himself with flattering friends.
Related concepts of vanity also include pride, pride, arrogance, arrogance and “star fever”. A vain person is only interested in his person.
Vanity is like a drug, without which, once you become addicted to it, you will no longer be able to live. And envy immediately settles in next to each other, 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.
Where does pride come from?
Pride grows from vanity. At first, a person tries with all his might to appear better than he is, to play to the public. During this period, all his thoughts are aimed at gaining some kind of authority, popularity, recognition. The distinctive features of such a personality are easy to notice. This:
- constant attempts to make excuses (“It’s not my fault that I lost the documents. You distracted me, and I forgot about them”);
- love for “reincarnations” (at home she is a vindictive, grumpy and petty person, in public she is an “angel in the flesh” who helps everyone);
- boasting (such a person will demonstrate a new outfit by any means, briefly mention a happy personal life, inadvertently remember career successes).
It would seem that there is nothing wrong with this manner of behavior, but if a person lives in a cocoon of self-adoration, then sooner or later he falls into the net of pride.
Perishable glory
As mentioned above, vanity, along with pride, is one of the eight sinful passions in Orthodoxy.
I would also 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 “quickly passing and perishable.”
Position, high position, fame - things on earth are short-lived and unreliable. Any earthly glory is ashes and dust, simply 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-exaltation, arrogance and contempt for another person.
Summarizing 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 of his behavior and words, begins to do good deeds, and takes care of as much as possible people around you and don’t expect gratitude or payment for it.
We must try to get rid of the thought of our own importance, 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 an individual 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 you will have 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 should he strive.
The practice of renouncing pride
We relax, close our eyes, turn on our internal sensations and say it out loud.
I call upon you dark forces to perform a ritual of renunciation of the spirit of pride. Pride helps you survive in this world. Pride respects only the proud, but they do not respect the humble. But we pay with our souls for this crafty love of the proud. I no longer need pride, to rise above others, above God.
Heavenly Father, Creator of my soul, help me cleanse myself of pride. Higher powers, help me cleanse myself of pride. I want to follow the path of the heart, the path of humility, and so that there is not even a spirit of pride in me. And even the spirit of pride, I return to you, dark forces, forever. Get this spirit of dark forces out of my body.
Dark forces, give back to me that piece of my soul, my spiritual strength, which I exchanged for pride. Give me back my soul.
Then we sit relaxed and observe the sensations. You may feel like something is being pulled out of you. There may be other sensations or you may not feel anything. You may feel lighter and more pleasant in your soul, you may experience a feeling of joy and happiness.
We continue, we speak out loud.
Walking the path of the soul, I increase love and warmth around me, walking the path of pride, I sow cold into the souls of people and then I myself suffer. I will sow the warmth of the human soul, and for this I remove any elevation above other people.
Pride cannot be removed in one or several practices. Do it as often as possible and with humility, it will give a good effect.
