Can pride hurt your relationship?

This article will discuss how pride can hurt your relationship. It will explain why this happens, and what are the main signs that pride is hurting your relationship. Aside from that, the article will highlight ways for you to deal with pride that is hurting your relationship.

Can pride hurt your relationship? 

Yes, pride will often hurt your relationship. Although pride is important since it is what shows you, and others, how satisfied you are with yourself, and that you feel accomplished, or successful for something you have done.

This form of pride is often named authentic pride. It is what will give you a sense of self-control, and confidence, and make you focused on the thing you want to achieve. But there is also the hubristic type of pride, which is often the type of pride that will be associated with harming your relationship.

This form of pride is focused on trying to dominate the other. It is mostly driven by a wish for power. This type of pride will often prevent you from putting yourself in other people’s shoes. Which can be extremely detrimental to a relationship, be it romantic, or any other type.

In a romantic relationship, too much pride will ultimately harm the intimacy in your relationship. You can feel that it is affecting the trust, communication, affection, and emotional security you and your partner have.

So if you are wondering what are some clear signs that pride is hurting your relationship, let’s discuss them now.

What are signs that pride is hurting my relationship? 

Whenever pride is getting the best of you, to a point that it can hurt your relationship, you may feel that it is becoming easier for you to disagree with others, and whenever you are faced with a stressful situation you won’t know how to deal with it through positive emotions. Rather than that, you will often respond with anger, irritability, or rage.

You may also act in some way entitled, and disregard the commitment and responsibilities you had with other people. Which will make you have toxic behaviors, and even display narcissistic traits. 

Because of all that, pride will hurt your relationship and will often lead you to have trouble compromising with your partner, make you act defensive, or resentful, which can little by little make you and your partner feel emotionally disconnected from one another. 

It may also make you feel like other people’s opinions, or what they are saying is often directed to affect you, even if that is not true. In that sense, pride will often harm your communication with your partner.

Your pride may also make you constantly look for faults in others, especially when you are comparing them to yourself.  Aside from that, you may have trouble apologizing, and feeling like you know what is the best thing to do. That may often be related to a deep sense of insecurity, but it can make you disregard your partner.

When pride is too much, it will hurt the intimacy in your relationship to a point that even your sexual life is affected. That is because intimacy levels are often associated with sexual desire. 

Finally, your pride may make it even harder for you and your partner to reconcile a disagreement. Because you are having trouble compromising, and listening to their side, it may be difficult for you to imagine that you are doing something wrong, which will ultimately lead you to fights that will be harder to make up for.

How to deal with the pride that is hurting my relationship? 

If you feel that your pride is being detrimental to your relationship, here is what you can do to make it better.

Understand your role in what is happening 

The first thing to do is to understand how your pride is affecting your relationship. Being aware that your pride has become a problem, and focusing on assessing this matter is the first thing to do to change it.

Knowing you are not perfect, and that like all of us you have your shortcomings will allow you to reflect ok the impact your pride is having on your relationship.

Try to look at criticism differently

Pride can often be a defense mechanism people develop whenever their self-esteem is too low. So to work with that, it may be important to find a balance between feeling worthless, and not seeing any fault at all in what you do.

So as you are learning to do so, you must learn to hear criticism differently. This doesn’t mean you should be okay with other people saying harsh things to you, but mostly that you are open to the possibility that you are not perfect.

Keep in mind what your partner means to you 

Remembering the value this relationship has to you will allow you to weigh if it is so important to you to always be right, or if you want to encourage this relationship to grow, and will open space for that by being vulnerable with your partner.

Take a look at your values 

Being aware of your core values will allow you to focus more on what is important to you, and what are your goals, allowing you to have a more positive attitude toward your pride.

With that, you can be more confident, which will allow you to express yourself better and in a more vulnerable way in your relationship, allowing it to grow.

Work on communicating how you feel

Sometimes, when pride takes over you can say hurtful things. If, in communicating with your partner, you realize that pride is about to take over, getting some distance to sort out how you feel can help.

Writing it out so you can understand it better, and then communicating it more positively to your partner can help you.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ): Can pride hurt your relationship? 

What is false pride?

False pride is related to the notion that someone is expressing pride over something that they haven’t achieved in reality.

 It may be, for example, that someone is constantly expressing how proud they are of a book they wrote when in reality, people are not completely sure the person has written the book in the first place, so it may be only false pride.

What is the difference between pride, and ego?

There are some differences between ego and pride. The first one is often described as the way the person sees, and because of that, it can be related to false ideas. It can often lead the person to act arrogantly. 

And it is what will likely prevent the person from apologizing whenever they have done something that is considered wrong. Which can be extremely hurtful. As for pride, it is not connected just to the person you are, it is mostly linked to you achieving, or doing something you are proud of.

It is often what will lead you to experience self-satisfaction, but you can also experience pride related to another person, and when that is the case, it can often motivate the people around you.

What is the difference between pride and arrogance?

People may have a hard time understanding the difference between the two, but you should know that pride is often connected to the idea that you have done something positive. It could be that you are happy about an ability you developed, or even a promotion you got at your job.

But being arrogant means that you have a sense of self-importance, and think that, for example, you have gained that job promotion because you are the only person that can perform this job. Making you feel like the most special person without ever considering the reality of the fact.

So while pride is often related to a real perception of yourself, and it is often justified, arrogance is not, and can show up even when there is no new achievement for you to be proud of.

Is there a difference between being proud, and feeling confident?

Yes, there is a difference between being proud, and feeling confident. Pride will often be related to the perception that you did, or achieved something worth mentioning, and this makes you think highly of yourself.

But confidence is not related to what you have achieved, but mostly to who you are. If you are confident, it means that you see yourself, in the good, and bad, but even though you know you are not perfect, you recognize all your abilities.

How can I deal with someone that has a lot of pride?

Dealing with a proud person can be difficult at times, but if you have someone like that in your life, the first thing you should do is try to talk to them. Tell them you want to talk about a determined matter, and don’t digress from it. 

As you are dealing with someone that has a lot of pride, you should also avoid getting caught in their line of thought, but also know that it is impossible to control other people’s behavior. So try to have enough space between the two of you, even if that means walking away from this person.

How can I show confidence without seeming too arrogant?

You may have been dealing with some things that are making you feel good about yourself, but this can sometimes make it seem like you are arrogant to other people. So know that if you want to display confidence, without seeming too arrogant, you should first be careful with the words you use.

Try to not speak in a way as if you were better than anyone else. You should also try to do the work on seeing yourself fully, and recognizing not only the good in you but also your weakness. A confident person should also be willing to recognize their mistakes, which won’t happen to someone arrogant. 

Being able to be happy, and celebrate other people’s achievements is also a sign that you are not arrogant. And you should also care for your body language since it is through it that you will be able to show other people you care. So make sure you always talk to people, look them in the eyes and respond accordingly.

Finally, know that confident people will usually not take themselves too seriously, and will likely be able to laugh at what they have done.

Conclusion

This article discussed how pride can hurt your relationship, what are the signs it is hurting your relationship, and how to deal with that.

If you have any questions or comments about this article, feel free to write them in the section below.

References

https://psychcentral.com/health/can-pride-ruin-relationships#signs-of-pride-in-relationships