"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." ~ Dalai Lama
This blog post came to me in the shower this morning (where a lot of my deep thoughts come from - ha!). I was thinking about how one of my biggest stumbling blocks and barriers in life is the issue of comparing myself to others. We all do it and I know I'm not alone, but it still isn't easy to admit. I mean, in today's world how can you NOT compare what you have or what you don't have to other people? Is this just an American thing? Was it an issue for our parents and our grandparents and our great-grandparents when they were growing up? Or is it just us? Today?
I hate that I do it. I hate that I see someone with something I want and think that they are better than me. It totally brings me down! Because the truth is, they aren't better than me and I'm not better than them. We are all just people trying to make it in the world. We all have our strengths and our weaknesses. And the one thing we could all use a little more of is compassion.
So I thought, what if we could turn our thoughts of COMPARISON into thoughts of COMPASSION? Instead of taking a judgemental view on others and ourselves, we take a compassionate view. For example, say I'm envying the work-from-home blogging mom who runs her own business and seems to have the perfect life (totally a stretch, right? ha!). Well, instead of feeling envious of her and sorry for myself, I need to CHOOSE to be compassionate. I'm sure that momma has her days when she feels like she can barely hold it all together - days when she's busting at the seams and thinks she could snap. Days that are exactly like the days that I have. The days that we ALL have.
Compassion literally means "to suffer together with." It sounds a little depressing, but it is one of the most comforting things to know - to know that others can relate to our pain, our stress, our heartache, our strife. We are all in this crazy race together and we need to lean on each other instead of judging and comparing each other.
Okay, well I think that's enough of my deep, rambling thoughts for today. :-)
It seems like this is on LOTS of people's minds lately. I do that all the time. Try hard not to - but it's easier to compare than to just be content I guess? Grrrrr! :) Thanks for sending me your link love!
ReplyDeleteI think we all do this far too often. I know how fortunate I am to have the life I do but there are definitely still many times when I look at someone else's life and think how much easier they have it... or how much nicer there things are... or whatever it might be. Everyone has good times and everyone has hard times... no matter how amazing someone's life may appear from the outside. I will definitely try to practice compassion more often!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree! I love the idea of moving from comparison to compassion!! I found you throughTop Mommy Blogs. I hope you will check out my blog at http://peaceitalltogether.blogspot.com.
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