Sometimes a person is seized by despair from the consciousness of his own imperfection, and he wants to start a new life - righteous, sinless, flawless. But in order to understand how to stop sinning, you first need to understand what sin is.
General concept of sin
The very word "sin" in Russian could initially be interpreted as "error", as evidenced by such words as "flaw", "error". By the way, in other languages this word had a similar meaning. In Greek, this concept was denoted by the word ἁμάρτημα (ἁμαρτία), which is best translated as “mistake, fault”, and the Jews designated an unintentional sin by the word “hat”, which can also be translated as “mistake”.
In modern society, if you do not take into account the religious aspect, the concept of "sin" is perceived as a violation of the laws of public morality, as well as state laws. Thus, a person who observes the laws of society, does not commit crimes provided for by the criminal code, does not violate secular moral and ethical standards, no longer sins.
The situation with the religious concept of sin is somewhat more complicated, because each religion interprets the concept of sin in its own way.
Consciousness of sinfulness
Nevertheless, people often feel sinful, worry that they live wrong, and act unfairly towards others. Living with such thoughts is not easy. But the truth is that no one person can be absolutely good or hopelessly bad.
If the consciousness of your own imperfection is tormented, you can try to solve this problem by working with your inner feelings of guilt, as well as developing your own empathy. Having ceased to feel guilty for what a person is actually not guilty of, it will become easier for him to accept himself and believe that he is not so bad, to make his own life more joyful. And developed empathy, i.e. the ability to feel the experiences and emotions of others, the ability to put oneself in the place of another, to understand what he is experiencing when someone is treated with him in one way or another, will help to treat his neighbor more carefully and not to injure him with his actions, which means that objectively become better, that is. e. stop sinning.
Get rid of the feeling of guilt
Sometimes the feeling of guilt is mistakenly confused with conscience, when a person worries about the unseemly actions he has committed and seeks to correct them. But guilt is something else. This is a sense of one's own responsibility for something for which a person, in principle, cannot be responsible.
Working with a sense of guilt is necessary, and it is usually a lengthy process. Sometimes you cannot do without the help of a specialist psychologist. You can start it by understanding the following important principles.
1. Each person is not like those around him, and has the right to live as his conscience, reason, common sense, religious convictions, intuition tells him. It is impossible to please everyone, it is unrealistic to become good for everyone. Of course, reasonable compromises with others is the best way out of possible conflict situations, but the concessions should be mutual and not harm the individual.
2. Do not be allowed to blame you for what you cannot be held responsible for: in bad weather and tense international situation, in the fact that the child brought another "bad grade", the retired mother has joint pain, and the boss is in a bad mood. If you feel that the interlocutor is trying to do just that, it is better to just get away from communication, and postpone the decision of important issues for later.
3. You are not responsible for the consequences of your actions, which you could not have imagined. So, it is not your fault that you presented your mom with a tourist ticket, and she broke her leg while making this trip.
4. It is not your fault that you live richer, more comfortable or happier than your relative, friend or colleague (unless, of course, you have achieved this at his expense). If you still feel guilty about this, do something useful for those around you without demanding gratitude from them: break a flower bed in front of the house, help a neighbor load things to move to the country.
The feeling of guilt is a destructive state that can lead a person to a consciousness of his own inferiority, therefore, it is necessary to start working with him as early as possible.
Develop empathy
The ability to empathize with another, to understand what kind of emotions and feelings he is experiencing, helps to understand the nature of these feelings, which means, if there is such an opportunity, try to make sure that people, when communicating with you, at least do not experience negative emotions. Isn't this what Christianity calls "love for one's neighbor"?
All mentally healthy people and even some animals are capable of empathy, but there is no limit to perfection, and this ability can be developed for the benefit of oneself and others.
1. To begin with, learn to clearly define what exactly a person is experiencing at a particular moment in time. Notice changes in facial expressions, voice timbre, gestures, body position.
2. Try to get used to his physical condition and feel the same as he does. Copy all the features of changes in his appearance noticed by you at the moment of experiencing some kind of emotion and try to feel the same as he does.
3. Having thus tuned in to the emotions of the interlocutor, you can try to bring him out of the negative emotional state, however, this requires special skills.
For ordinary life, it will be nice to master the first two levels of empathy, and then there will be much more chances to start living and acting in harmony with others and with yourself. And this is the main condition in order not to feel like a sinner.
