Why despite the advancement of technology, the mental and physical health of the general public, shows a downward trend? Even the rich and famous have occasionally admitted their blues and talked about how they came out of that. Why do people, who can own anything, feel devoid of loving attention and care, at times? Why lifestyle diseases
Photo @Christine
is on the rise? Why do we need to manage stress? Is stress essential in our life?
The answer to all of these is our desire to grow. We feel we are deficient in something that needs to be filled, to make ourselves feel full of abundance. Our understanding of growth, our personal growth, needs a rethink. It should be based on what we were like yesterday. It should not be compared with what someone else is today. Of course, we can make people our role models, we can follow them, and we can copy their lifestyle, mannerisms, styles, or way of talking or walking. There is nothing wrong with that. But we should not start comparing ourselves with them. We do not know their story; we do not know their path. Comparison brings “worry, which brings fear and fear is crippling” as per Earl Nightingale, the famous author, and speaker of yesteryears.
When we want to grow in any way, whether physically, mentally, financially, or popularity-wise, our only yardstick should be what we were yesterday. All comparisons should be with ourselves, all competitions should be with ourselves. Whether my friend has a 6-pack or Ferrari or a private jet, whether they have achieved this or that in their life, should not be my goal in life. We should have our own dream.
Lifestyle diseases come from the fear that we may fail. Surprising but true! Any failure is seen not as a failure in an act, but as failure in our life itself. Also, the over-accumulation of envy, jealousy, anger, sense of not being in control of the situation, all add up to the frustration leading to these diseases. So, what we thought was the path of growth actually leads us to the path of non-wellbeing, physically and mentally. There cannot be any change in this scenario, till we keep comparing ourselves with others. The simple way to break the loop is to start comparing ourselves of today with ourselves of yesterday. We will never feel jealous even if we make great progress. Most of the time, we will feel motivated, if we are putting effort sincerely and regularly.
Another thing that we need to understand is never to get into the habit of being in control all the time. It is impossible to be in control all the time. There are so many variables and it is insane to think that all these variables will run as per our will, all the time. We must get into the habit of acceptance of the situation and then related actions to dissolve the problem.
Our growth will be far more satisfactory with lesser stress if we follow the above guidelines.