Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about humility. This comes after finding myself in the throes of some jealousy as well as frustration, two things that stem from having, perhaps, an inflated view of one’s own importance — that I am entitled to things going my way at the pace and with the details I desire. The reality is I am, you are, never entitled to these things, life going the way I, you, want.

This is where humility comes in because it allows us to put our experiences into a broader perspective of being, enabling us to surrender some of the control we perceive ourselves to have. This allows for a more interconnected experience of our lives, a more fullness of feeling and an ability to be with what is, even, and especially, when we really don’t like it.

The dictionary definition of humility is having a modest or low view of one’s importance. To me, this definition screams a type of low self esteem that aligns more with hyper-vigilent narcissism than authentic well-being. We all need to feel important, or rather, worthy, to some degree. This worth helps us to stand as our own person, with our quirks and our uniqueness, facing a world where there is judgement and criticism. It takes compassion, vulnerability and courage to be who you are and that requires you to see yourself (and to that end others) as inherently worthy human BEings.

The word humility also comes from that latin word “humus” which means earth or…