How can we develop humility?

Humility is very important. It is considered to be the basis needed to develop other christian virtues, such as love. How can someone develop humility though? There are some ways that may help someone develop humility.

To begin with, we need to pray to God about developing humility before we start our efforts (Morphou, 2019); if we do not do that, the devil may make our life hard and try to do things that will result in us not getting humility.

A way to develop humility is via mimicking Christ (e.g. the humility that He showed when people wanted to kill Him and when He was suffering) and saints (Morphou, 2019). Reading about their lives and seeing what humility they had may help us adopt humility ourselves. Talking to a priest or someone who has a lot of theological knowledge regarding what humility is and which behaviours are considered to be humble may also help, if someone has limited knowledge about the subject.

Another way to develop humility is via obeying others (Agiosymeonitis, 2021). For example, it is considered a duty of a christian to obey to their spiritual father. During this obedience, one may also develop humility; a will to obey someone shows that we have the humility to understand that sometimes we may be wrong and that we are not always right in whatever we believe we should be doing (Agiosymeonitis, 2021).

Another behaviour that may help us become more humble is showing contempt towards receiving praise by people (Agiosymeonitis, 2021), as this may increase our pride. Having patience when people treat us badly may also help us develop humility (Agiosymeonitis, 2021). Moreover, getting to know ourselves and who we truly are may help (Agiosymeonitis, 2021). Most people do not truly know who they are and do not have self-knowledge and self-consciousness. If we do not know ourselves, we are probably less likely to be humble because we do not realise who we truly are. For instance, we may be trying to persuade ourselves that we are better people than someone would think, stronger, more talented or more powerful. Understanding who we truly are, though, and the limitations to our abilities and our weaknesses is useful to develop humility.

In addition, doing things that make our bodies tired (e.g. doing some manual work) may actually help us be more humble too (Agiosymeonitis, 2021). When we are tired, we feel differently from how we feel when we are lying in a sofa all the time. We may realise more that our strength is limited, for example. Furthermore, doing some work that someone who is not humble may not accept to do (e.g. work in a stable or clean up toilets) may help us be more humble. Finally, talking less about how important we are and minimising the importance that we say that we have, while emphasising on the importance of other people, may help us become more humble (Agiosymeonitis, 2021).

All in all, these are just some ways that I have read may help someone become more humble. There are definitely more ways than these. I believe that people could start with these, but importantly also ask their spiritual father or generally priests and theologians, as they are more much more of an expert in the field than an amateur who reads religious books and prays to repent (me) can be. People could also try to read books of priests/saints about humility. Reading religious books is actually very useful for repenting.

References

Agiosymeonitis, C. (2021). Humility based on the holy fathers. 1st ed. Stavropigiaki and synodal monastery of saint Symeon the new theologian, Kalamos of Attiki.

Morphou, N., (2019). How is humility cultivated and retained. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R4-haDaWKQ&t=1533s [Accessed 19 March 2022].