“Swallow your pride before you choke on your issues.”
—Murs, “Everything”
How often do you say, “My pride won’t allow me to do ‘X’ or ‘Y’ even if it might be the appropriate action to take? Maybe ‘X’ it is forgiving a person who wronged you, or ‘Y’ is accepting help from someone when you really need it. This line from Murs’ (If you’ve never heard of him, he’s released a few top notch CDs with Ninth Wonder) rap song really struck a chord with me. Even though I do make a conscious effort to practice forgiveness and do not consider myself to be prideful, I do often struggle with swallowing my pride when it comes to asking for help. I convince myself that I can do it all alone or sometimes feel too ashamed to ask for help or that I am having difficulties if I underestimated how much work something would take because I brought it all on myself.
To use an analogy derived from Murs’ line, perhaps I struggle with reaching out for help because I hear my mother’s voice from childhood saying, “You asked for all of that food, and you’re not going to leave this table until you’ve cleaned your plate!” We’ve all got to eat to survive, but it most instances it is the swallowing of the food with the proper nutrients, not the junk, that sustains us. As an adult, I have learned that forcing myself to eat because I can’t admit that I put too much on my plate may not only cause me to choke but may also make me sick on the stomach resulting in everything else I enjoyed or managed to eat to come right back up. This is a scene I don’t want to envision for myself nor for my family and friends who may be in a similar predicament.
Do you struggle with pride? Has it hindered you, the progress of your relationships or success in anyway? I know it has for me occasionally and probably will in the future. Sometimes it is best to swallow our pride…isn’t it?
Please feel free to share your thoughts
~Anonomz
Bonus English Lesson:
Murs’ line is an example of an idiom because it is a common phrase made up of words that cannot be understood by their literal meaning. People cannot really swallow their pride…can they?
Journey of Anonomz 