“The Harmful Effects of Constant Comparison on Mental Health: How to Break Free”
Has there ever been a point in your life, where you compared yourself with something/someone on the basis of educational success, physical appearance, intellect, financial status or power in society? The comparison can be in the form of evaluating one’s own abilities and progress, however, constant comparison can lead to feelings of low self-esteem or even inadequacy in the long run.
In today’s time, it’s much easier for people to compare themselves with others due to accessibility of everything on the internet. I am not portraying social media as the sole proprietor of comparison since comparison has always existed in one form or another but it wasn’t in the solid form as it exists today. You might find someone very successful, extremely beautiful, a genius, powerful, has all the riches of the world according to you but is it how that person sees himself? For that person, you might be someone he/she aims to become.
Accessible Sources Of Comparison Today:
The easiest ways to compare yourselves with others are by scrolling pages for fun, checking the feeds, instagram, youtube shorts, facebook, snapchat filters, movies, actors’ profiles or profiles of each other. It’s because people have started to publicize what’s to be kept private which has created havoc in every corner of the world in terms of visualization of perfect life. People tend to compare at places that don’t make sense at times, well comparison never made sense in the first place.
People compare their social lives, private lives, their circles, incomes, people, gestures, expressions, lifestyles, behaviors, beauty and what not, as if in comparison, being better than the other or to look better than the other is the sole purpose of one’s existence. Once you start comparing, be it even the littlest thing, you won’t stop. It never stops because the reason why ‘comparison’ begins is one’s dissatisfaction, ungratefulness of what he/she has or owns.
Two Qualities That Heal You:
The two things I advocate about are gratefulness and acceptance which go hand in hand and lack of which is the only reason why people try to fit in the ‘ridiculous standards of life created by dissatisfied people’. It’s to claim that the ones who surprisingly live up to those expectations and meet the standards live a perfect/ satisfactory life where they don’t wish for anything. Gratefulness is such a virtue which leads to all other virtues that we aspire towards such as happiness, sense of security and hope. Also, the acceptance of own flaws indicates self love.
One thing to remember is that one can’t buy inner peace, contentment. As long as there’s comparison, there’s no satisfaction, no peace. It’s because if you do not realize that everyone is built differently, has different fate than you which means his/her ups and downs in life are different than yours, there’s no point in anything you do in life cause you don’t do it for yourself but for others.
Your blessing is the desire of the other.
