Humility gives us the personal space that’s needed for compassion and connection.

Without humility, we squeeze others out of this space via enlarging our selves; who we are, what we want and do not want, what we think, and so on.

For those that we keep or introduce into this crammed space, it can get a little suffocating! This is because selfishness is powered by a principle of control, or force, expressed via assumption. Whereas humility, or selflessness, is powered by harmony and flexibility, and these find themselves expressed in questions and open attention.

Personally, arrogance has been and is a key way for me to avoid the pain of feeling inadequate or misunderstood. A key purpose of humility’s opposites is to protect us via inflating a comforting self-sense into our space, so as to keep potential pain out of it; quite like a cell’s membrane, but minus the long-term benefits!

Filling our personal space with our self-conception is not just stifling to others, it can be for us as well. As more and more, the realities of the world will induce resentment and bitterness because they do not meet our expectations, that dynamic grows, and the less humility there is.

So the 🔑 to opening your heart and mind, this space, is to let yourself genuinely see how small you are in the scope of things, how little you understand and perceive. How fragile life can be. Like me, you may need daily reminders! And that’s okay.

This said, answers are in balance and context, as this world isn’t a flatland of perspective-equality. A justified knowing is useful, and one of the best skills in life is knowing where it applies, and where it does not.

What is your relationship to humility? How do you manage it in balance with your perspectives?