PRIDE & EGO

In our daily lives, we often hear the words "pride" and "ego" thrown around in various contexts, but what do they mean, and how do they affect our lives? Both pride and ego play significant roles in shaping our personalities and influencing our actions. To truly overstand these concepts and find a balance between them, we need to dive deeper into what pride and ego represent.

Pride is often associated with a sense of accomplishment, self-worth, and satisfaction. It’s that warm feeling you get when you achieve a goal, receive praise for your hard work, or simply take pride in being yourself. In essence, pride is often mistaken for a healthy and positive expression of emotion that helps boost our self-esteem and motivates us to strive for excellence, but pride isn’t the foundation of self-confidence, although many use it as a driving force for success. Self-confidence is a derivative of self-acceptance, self-actualization, and self-discovery, and the overinflation of pride is one of vanity, arrogance, and superiority. Stemming from a place of ego, pride can be an excessive self-praise or worship that boasts characteristic traits of dominance as it is demanding, demeaning, and self-entitled. 

Pride is a derivative of the ego that becomes the driver of that inner voice that leads to selfishness, and disdain, fabricating that distorted sense of self-importance. A healthy amount of self-esteem is crucial, but an overinflation of pride and ego leads to harmful self-inflicting behaviors and a bountiful trail of damaged relationships. At the foundation of self-sabotage pride and ego reside inflicting pain and suffering not only on our worst enemies but on ourselves. With the assistance of pride and ego, we become our enemy number 1. 

Pride and ego will have you follow the rationality of your mind rather than the emotions of your heart, and while logic and reason are invaluable assets, ignoring the call of your heart results in an abundance of missed opportunities and a lack of genuine fulfillment in life. Pride and ego will have you fail to exist and keep you living in the trials and tribulations associated with survival mode programming, leaving you emotionally drained, and mentally stressed in your day-to-day life with feelings of emptiness – voids you attempt to fill with external temptations that bring no real pleasure or fulfillment into your world.  You’ll indulge in temporary moments of temptation or adventure that stimulate those short fleeting moments of excitement because the truth is there is no thrill in your everyday life. There is just a need to survive. Pride and ego are no servers of happiness. They are the servers of indignity. 

Pride and ego are unnatural components of our spiritual existence yet instinctual to the human psyche, and their indulgence leads to a myriad of negative consequences. It is the destroyer of peace and the bringer of disparity hence it is the culprit behind shattered relationships and broken hearts. Pride and ego are the builders of invisible walls that hinder intimacy, erode trust, and create an insoluble divide between people. Recognizing the signs of excessive pride and ego is crucial in preserving and nurturing meaningful connections with the people we love. 

• Hindrance to Apologizing: Apologizing is a powerful act of humility that mends relationships and strengthens character. Unfortunately, excessive pride can prevent individuals from admitting their mistakes and seeking forgiveness. Embracing humility and apologizing when necessary can only enhance one's integrity and foster empathy in return.

• Fosters Isolation: In a social context, an inflated sense of pride and ego can isolate individuals from their peers. The belief that one is superior or has more important matters to attend to can lead to missed opportunities for growth and connection. 

Balancing pride and ego is a skill that can significantly enhance the quality of our lives. It's crucial to nurture a healthy sense of self-worth without letting it morph into arrogance. Here are some strategies to maintain that delicate balance:

• Self-awareness: Allocate some moments for introspection regarding your actions and underlying motivations. Are they driven by genuine passion or the need to prove something to others? Self-awareness is a valuable tool for distinguishing moments when pride and ego begin to exert control. 

• Practice humility: Embrace humility as a powerful tool for growth and self-improvement. Acknowledge your mistakes and be ready to offer apologies when it's appropriate. True strength lies in the ability to take accountability for our actions and to make right what was once wronged. Vindictiveness is a trivial and evil spirit. Those who embrace humility recognize that those who project their internal chaos onto us are in dire need of immense love, healing, acceptance, compassion, and forgiveness. 

• Foster empathy: Cultivate empathy for others by considering their feelings and perspectives. This can help break down the barriers created by excessive pride and ego, leading to more authentic and meaningful connections. Our self-worth is no more important than the worth of our brothers and sisters who inhabit the same Earth we walk upon. To appreciate and acknowledge each individual's worthiness of love, appreciation, and value is the most genuine and empathetic thing that you can do.

• Seek advice and feedback: Don't be afraid to seek guidance from trusted friends, mentors, or family members. Their perspectives can offer valuable insights and help you maintain a healthy sense of self. It's a form of arrogance if one truly believes that you can’t learn something from everyone and anyone, even from those who aren’t where you want to with regards to social status. 

• Embrace vulnerability: Embracing vulnerability not only helps foster empathy, compassion, and acceptance but it also makes space for us to enter deeper realms of emotional intimacy and produces more profound moments where we are in our most authentic expression of self. 

True happiness is found when we become the vibrational match for peace, love, and gratitude and to do so would entail us to prevail over futilities such as pride and ego and allow our hearts and souls to govern our minds so that we then produce meaningful and impactful actions.  Pride and ego keep us from expressing everything our hearts want to, but to become entangled in irrational patterns of thinking and overindulge in analytics would be to miss out on the splendor of spontaneity and the beauty of pursuing what truly resonates with us. For love, passion, and dreams are often born from our heart's desires. When we follow our hearts, we unlock doors to possibilities we never knew existed. When our hearts take the lead, the way in which we exist transforms into something inexplicably glorious beyond all measure. We live lives of miraculous surprises and stumble upon people and opportunities that become extensions to our happiness in the most unexpected ways.