Is being humble a bygone? In today’s article, we’ll explore humility as the foundation for love, truth and a meaningful life.
To watch this week’s article with additional, bonus content on the Will You Grow Show, please click here and subscribe to the show here.
What does it mean to be humble?
According to Oxford Languages, being humble means having or showing a modest or low estimate of one’s own importance. For the sake of this article, being humble means having or showing equal importance to all forms of life. This means that no form, including our own, is more important than any other.
How does it feel when we aren’t humble?
Humility fluctuates, so chances are, we’ve all not felt humble before. For example, if we’ve ever: exaggerated our accomplishments, cut in line, yelled about untimely service, didn’t accept life as it was or didn’t accept others as they were, we may have acted out of less-than-humble feelings. We may have felt a combination of: anxious, unsafe, and afraid of being judged, abandoned and ostracized or a combination of: irritated, judgmental and “holier-than-thou.” Either combination can incite our lack of humility.
How does it feel when we’re humble?
When we’re humble, we feel comfort, ease and safety. We don’t worry about how we compare to others, because we know that we’re equally valuable. Being humble feels inclusive. We don’t feel offended or defensive in response to the behavior of others. When we’re humble, we recognize the equality and importance of all life, and love everyone equally. We treat everything like family. When we’re humble, there really isn’t much to get worked up about and feeling peaceful is natural.
Being humble allows us to listen.
When we’re humble—empty of certainty and self-importance based on insecurity and history, we’re free to deeply listen. In other words, when our mind is not full of reasons why we’re too important and busy to listen, we can hear.
When we humbly listen, we can learn.
Listening to others, and listening to our own inner thoughts and feelings, requires us to fully receive (hear and take in) what is being expressed (in words and otherwise). In other words, humbly listening allows us to hear without judging, controlling or recasting what’s expressed to suit our wishes. Humbly listening allows us to learn from what we hear, and know the truth of life, ourself and others, as we are.
When we humbly listen, we can also love.
Love includes listening and receiving what others are, and are expressing. In other words, if we can’t listen, receive, or take in who someone is and what they may be expressing, we neither know them, wish to know them, nor are we able to truly love them as they are. (In the case of listening to a narcissist, disregard this message, as ongoing humble listening to a narcissist may include a detrimental self-sacrifice and lack of self-love, which may lead to mental, emotional and/or physical instability.)
When we are humble, we can experience life, learning, truth, meaning and love!
Being humble, we invite and allow ourself to experience the glories of life. In other words, by being humble, we allow ourself to see the truth of life as it is, be introspective, learn about and love ourself, others and all, more fully. And this allows us to experience a life each of us can find personally meaningful.
Can we be more humble?
To become more humble more of the time, below are five tips to consider:
#1 Remember we’re an infinitesimal speck within a universe of specks and space.
Rather than making ourself the center of everyone’s universe to feel safe, we can recognize that we are safest in the truth that we are all equal and interconnected.
#2 Remember how much we don’t know.
As a wise elder once said, “A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small package.” When we’re humble, we will remember that there is always be more that we don’t know, than we do.
#3 Accept that we can learn from everything.
Each of our experiences are different. Therefore, we can choose to be interested in learning from the experiences of others.
#4 Accept the life force and wisdom in everything and everyone.
Every being is gifted with life and its wisdom, equally. We can accept and respect this.
#5 Notice what we are thinking, feeling and saying.
Do our thoughts, feelings and words reflect the equality of all life? Although observing where we are humble or not so humble may seem unsettling, it is important to the health, welfare and safety of ourself and our world. For example, if we think others should serve us, while we say that they are our equal, or if we say that we love animals, while we justify killing the tasty, small and annoying ones, or if we expect others to behave according to our personal religious beliefs, we might consider asking ourself a question. What would it take for me to feel safe enough to know that we are all equals? 🙂
Will You?
No one can be humble for us. Are we willing to give ourself and others the gift of our humility? With awareness, refreshing change, vitality, growth, peace and love can enter our hearts, minds and lives. Let us know how applying today’s concepts works for you! We enjoy hearing from you.
If you’d like Angelique’s assistance as you become more humble and loving, feel free to explore ways in which a complimentary conversation or a package of conversations could support you. Additionally, for a complete listing of our tour dates, and to sign up for email updates on new tours and locations, see our tour page on willyougrow.com.
Always with love,
Leave A Comment