We live in a world which is driven by comparison and competition. It’s how our society thrives. As a result of our conditioning to ‘be the best’ we only share the highlights of our lives, never showing the ugliness. The image we present to the world is filtered, polished and perfected, hiding any insecurity, imperfection and emotional vulnerability.
We tend to compare ourselves with our peers, more than with anyone else. We feel safe with the pack. It’s uncomfortable standing out, so we use comparison as a tool to monitor our social standing. We constantly want to know what everyone else is up to, using that information as a marker to measure our success and alignment with society.
We desperately want to keep up with a race that has no finish line. Why do we do this to ourselves? Blame the programming. From our childhood we were conditioned to be the best, win the race, be the captain, achieve, achieve, achieve. No one was rewarded for losing.
On a most basic level, comparison is complete denial of living in the present moment. When we slip into a state of comparison, we want to be anywhere but where we are, who we are, in our bodies and in the lives we’re living.
Comparison is the thief of joy. It pulls us out of the beautiful life we are living, tearing us away from the perfection of the present moment and slams us into the glass through which we stare out at the world thinking we should be better than we are. It’s in these moments that we forget that happiness is an inside job. Contentment is an inside job. Nothing external can ever fix the self-esteem wounds within....<<<Read The Full Article Here>>>...
