“We cannot solve problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
~Albert Einstein
If you’re part of the human race, then your mind probably compares. It’s the nature of thoughts to divide the world into this and that, better and worse, right and wrong.
The comparing mind tells you you’re not good enough and that others matter more than you. Comparing leaves us irritable about the weather, wishing for a better childhood, and striving for perfection.
Take a moment to feel into your comparing mind. How does it tell you that now is not good enough? How does it convince you of “if only”…if only your reality were different, then you would be successful, approved of, or happy.
I have studied this comparing function in myself and many others, and here’s what I’ve concluded—comparing never makes us feel good.
Usually, we come up lacking. And even if we convince ourselves we’re special or better than others, we’re still caught in a story that makes us feel disconnected.
Check out how your mind functions for the next few days. My guess is that every time you feel badly in some way, you’ll find that comparing has taken hold.
In my experience, the comparing mind is harsh. When we’re lost in it, we feel tense…and sad. Who wants to live feeling like others have the key to happiness while we’re left lacking?
So how do we find our way out of comparing and back to peace, love, and harmony?
It’s important to know that you won’t find the solution by staying entangled in your thoughts. This is the “if only” strategy—if only I were thinner or more successful, then I would feel better and stop comparing.
And the solution is not in hoping to achieve something that you feel you don’t have now, as this will keep you striving forever.
So, as Einstein says in the quote above, a different approach is needed, which is to turn away from the whole comparing function of the mind and not use these thoughts to create your reality.
Comparing thoughts are veiling your true nature as peaceful, whole, and perfectly okay. When you don’t put your attention onto these thoughts, what happens? You realize you’re here, breathing in this moment, alive to your senses, not thinking about yourself and what you think you’re lacking.
Yes, the thoughts will probably return…and that is another golden opportunity to ignore what they tell you…and open again and again to the reality that’s actually here…not the false one in your mind.
Don’t think yourself into being. Instead, stay still. Don’t move your attention into stressful thoughts. Look closer than the comparing mind to the living, expansive vibration of this now moment.
James S Vogt says
Your article is a very helpful reminder. Thanks for sharing!