Humility Is Not Thinking That You Are Less, It Is Not Believing Yourself More

Popular legends and stories give great lessons. A famous fabulist told that there was once a conceited frog who rejected a toad with great arrogance because he considered it “little” for her. She also said that later the frog needed the toad’s help and that, with humility, she was forced to ask his forgiveness and to assume that she was no more than any other amphibian.

What happened to the famous frog in this fable is what happens to many people, or what can happen to all of us at some point in our lives. Furthermore, they are so used to their attitude being spoiled that they don’t bother to hide it.

What does it mean to be humble?

As always when we try to define something in the most standard way possible, we usually approach the dictionary. In this case, the Dictionary of the Spanish language says that humility is equivalent to having the virtue of being aware of one’s own weaknesses and limitations.

According to this, being humble is opposed to vain pride that goes beyond that which has to do with self-esteem and individual dignity. The moment the frog in our fable decides to reject the toad, he does so because he considers him ugly, but employing an arrogant attitude of superiority.

In this sense, overbearing behavior and moral superiority do not define humble people.  It is about understanding who we are without the need to remind others in the form of achievements and successes.

When are we practicing humility?

Humility is, in the same measure, a quality and a behavior that places us before others, so we can say that humility can be practiced in any action we take. For example, we do it in these situations:

• Discovering ourselves : understanding that we all have our experiences and circumstances and assuming that we cannot judge the path of others without having put on their shoes.
• Admitting our mistakes and learning to ask for forgiveness when it is appropriate: this may be one of the attitudes that is most difficult for us to assume because it puts us in the face of ourselves. For that reason,  knowing how to forgive and learn from mistakes makes us humble.
• Valuing the limitations and freedoms that we have: we are free to decide, to take directions towards one future or another, but within limitations. Knowing what are the defects that hold us back will help us humbly overcome them.

• Recognizing that we live in a society and that as such it is made up of people of different backgrounds, older or younger, more constant or more intelligent, etc. With respect for one another, taking these particularities into account, one can continue to be humble.
• Praising the virtues of others in a sincere way: it says a lot about what we are to be able to  recognize the virtues of those around us as much as we do our own. It is not a hypocritical way of reaching out to others, but rather of letting it be known that we all have precious value, whether discovered or undiscovered.

The butterfly will always remember that it was a worm

Taking into account all that has been said, humility is so valuable that those who achieve it will always remember how to maintain it, because they will have known how to find harmony and inner peace. In addition, he will have known how to get away from vanity and material attachment to things.

The butterfly will always remember that it was a worm because it knows that it can fall at some point in flight and, then, it will understand that being humble is not the same as having low self-esteem. Overflowing humility is very beautiful, as long as we know what the limits are to be reached, because otherwise we can hurt ourselves.

Humility makes us perfect ourselves, that they are kind and fraternal with us, that we find authentic people who really love us, that we value the effort to achieve what makes us happy, that we flee from the ego …