Carolina Perez Sanz

Comparison is the Ego’s main expression. It decides whether you’re safe or not depending on where you stand in regard to others.

It measures your “resources” (re: beauty, money, thinness, youth, you literally name it) against others’ and gives its verdict: more than others? You’re safe. Less? Hm, it depends. The least of all? Danger! The most of all? Victory!

This morning, as I was changing into my gym clothes, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. A half-baked thought appeared in my mind. Something about the thickness and tightness of my thighs and knees. I heard some sort of “should”––you should be fitter, maybe, or younger.

Immediately, I countered: compared to what?

The Ego got quiet. I finished putting my socks on and left for the gym, leaving the thought behind.

At the gym, before starting a set of overhead squats, the same thought appeared. Compared to what, I asked again. And again, it got quiet.

That’s when I realized it: anytime I hear a should, it’s because I’m comparing reality with something that’s not. And because the grass is always greener elsewhere, my reality loses every time.

I become unhappy because I lose my peace.

I may have found the antidote for the Ego’s pesky habit: ask, compared to what?

What comparison will you stop engaging in so that you quiet your Ego?

Love,

Carolina