Pride is an interesting word, because as we grow up you are not supposed to have pride, you are not supposed to act as if you were proud. And somehow we think we should be more humble. But within the practice and our spiritual direction, to have pride that you have this direction, to feel strong with it, to give yourself strength that does actually work, that is a positive energy.
And the word may not be exact to define it, but this feeling of, "Yes, I am super happy that I have this practice, I am super happy I am developing as a good person. I am proud that this is happening to me. I am not ashamed because being proud can be the opposite of being ashamed. I am not ashamed of what is happening, "I am proud instead".
In this way, it can be very positive.
It can become very negative, if we get over excited about, " being a great meditator". And we go around tellling everybody we are a great meditators. Well, yeah, that's the negative side when we go over board with too much identification, with too much self pleasure just because we achieved something. And the same thing can happen everywhere. For example, a person can be very good at playing tennis, but if they tell everyone, "I am so good at playing tennis," then it's kind of over board. To actually win a tennis championship, to be happy to get the prize and all, that's okay, they can feel proud that they developed that particular skill and so forth. But then there is the over board aspect and that's where we want to be careful, with proud, proudness or pride.