Although many of us love the idea of bathing in a sea of excess, cardinal sins can cause so much upheaval in our lives, they have the potential to tear apart meaningful interactions with others. Not only can they serve to weaken and destroy romantic relationships, they also has a profoundly negative impact on the way we feel about other people in our environment. They can cause dysfunction and reinforce ideas that our relationships are chaotic, unfulfilling, and tragic. Beware when these get out of balance!
WRATH
Feeling scorned can be awful, but also quite addictive. So many people in our community live in a place of frustration, anger, and bitterness. Not only can this turn people away from wanting to spend time with us, but reinforces that we are surrounded by storm clouds just waiting to screw up our day.
GREED
There are absolutely times where we want to focus only our own desires. This could also be perceived as extremely selfish and can be a sign of the need to make up for a lack of fulfillment internally. Getting what we want may mean keeping secrets, going behind someone’s back, or dismissing other’s wishes to get our own needs met.
SLOTH
This can look many different ways in our relationships. It may happen when we don’t address issues that tend to fester and may blow up in our faces if not discussed. We may drag our feet with situations that may be confrontational, uncomfortable, or cause us to look at things that may beat up our self-esteem.
PRIDE
As we challenge our own ideas of self-worth and possibly low self-esteem, it can be easy to move to a place of overcompensation. We might build a false persona to show power instead of finding a balance of self-improvement activities to address our confidence issues.
LUST
Of all of these sins, this is the most fun for most of us. It can be so easy to get wrapped up in it — feelings for another person can be incredibly intense. Hopefully we are fortunate enough to cross paths with those who bring up feelings of passion and connection, while making particular body parts swell and our minds wander into all the delicious possibilities. Unfortunately, lust can cause us to lose focus on the important things in life, like friendships and other responsibilities.
ENVY
It’s not unusual to want what others have, but if we spend our energy focusing on being jealous of others, we don’t enjoy our own path of living and trying to shape our lives in meaningful ways. Not only can our perceptions be wrong about other people, but it makes us focus on what we don’t have.
GLUTTONY
Too much is never enough, right? It is natural to want more of a good thing, but we all know what can happen when we overeat at buffets. Regardless if we are talking about hooking up, partying, having fun, shopping, or getting obsessed over the hottest new fad, this can cause us to get wrapped up a single focus that may keep us from engaging in the rest of our life. Sometimes moderation is a good thing.
