How to Practice Humility in Your Recovery

When we lack humility, we usually end up disrespecting and hurting others. We can also end up feeling humiliated ourselves. This is one of the spiritual consequences of defying this spiritual principle. Practicing humility in your recovery makes you teachable, makes you a better listener and it allows you to examine yourself without shame or judgment. The hard thing about practicing humility is that most of us want to feel that we have some kind of power or importance in our own lives. Lowering our importance goes against what is natural to us.

So what is humility?

Humility as a spiritual principle is the development of an honest, accurate, and objective view of our importance in the universe. Humility is not low self-esteem. Some people mistake this as humility but it is not. Humility is detaching our self-esteem from our personal traits, physical appearance, wealth, shortcomings, assets or our past. Rather, humility is attached to the design our higher power has made for us. When we practice humility in our recovery we view ourselves as equals with everything and everyone. We view ourselves as equals to the trees, the stars, our friends, our siblings, our parents, the homeless, the rich, and everything in the universe.

Someone who actually practices humility rarely feels self-conscious. They actually feel the exact opposite. Humility means taking credit for what you are responsible for and giving credit for what you are not responsible for. Humility means having self-esteem that is stable, being secure in whom you are. There is no need for competition or comparison. Humility means learning from others but not being shaken about who you are due to it.

Here is how to practice humility in your recovery:

Be Grateful – Recognizing the great qualities and assets that you have but not bragging about them is a great way to practice humility in recovery. Be grateful for the gifts you have been given. Think about all the things you like about yourself.

Be Unique – Don’t compare yourself with other human beings. We are all diverse and possess individual talents and gifts. Comparing yourself to another person is like comparing a fruit to a vegetable: sometimes we’re alike, sometimes we’re not. It is our differences that allow us to learn from each other. When you compare yourself with someone else you can’t see what you already have inside of you that is so great.

Be Teachable – The key to any kind of wisdom is to be teachable. Realizing you don’t know everything is one of the main components to practicing humility in your recovery. Many things you believe may be false and you have so much to learn from other people.

Be Kind – Practice random acts of kindness. When you practice kindness, especially random acts of kindness you experience the fulfillment of feeling connected to other people. When you practice random acts of kindness you validate yourself without boasting. You know that your higher power knows and you know what you have done kindly and that’s enough. There is no pride and ego to get in the way.

Be Free – Let go of your expectations. It doesn’t matter how amazing you are at making plans, predicting outcomes or how adamant you are in your beliefs. Life will always produce different results that you did not expect or didn’t want. When you hang on to expectations you get frustrated, disappointed, angry and humiliated. When you let go of expectations and begin to take yourself and life less seriously you can handle what life throws at you way better and realize that you are on your higher power’s journey for you not your own.

Want to practice humility in your recovery it starts with you not with anyone else. Humility begins from the inside and works its way out. You are amazing and the only person who needs to know that is you. That is humility.

If your loved one is in need of addiction treatment, please give us a call at 800-951-6135.