Article by Antonia Beamish

Comparison is an act of violence against self.
~ Shaikh adil

Comparing ourselves with others is nothing new, it’s human nature. Yet, there is another side to comparison that we’re less aware of. One which is pulling us further away from the ability to truly accept and express our emotions and, instead, fuelling a trend of default gratitude, pulling us further away from the joy of authentic appreciation.

The Art of Comparison

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.

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