Welcome to the happiness podcast. I'm Dr. Robert Puff. Do you know one of the

quickest ways we can ruin our day even if it's a good day, is comparing ourselves to others.

That will do it.

And nowadays with the internet and all the social media apps it is very easy to find people to compare

ourselves to and feel bad about ourselves.

But the comparison trap has been around for a very, very long time, probably since we've been

humans. If you go back to Theodore Roosevelt, the President of the United States, you'll read he wrote,

comparison is the thief of joy.

Because when we compare ourselves to others,

whether we're having a feeling of inferiority or superiority,

neither of these two is going to create lasting, healthy happiness in our hearts.

It is truly the path of suffering when we compare ourselves to others.

But it is so difficult to do because it's everywhere now if we pick up our phones.

We can in a heartbeat see what others are doing and say I'm not doing that or I'm doing better than them. But most likely

it's the first one because most people don't post things about themselves when

their lives are boring. They only post things that are exciting

and thrilling for the most part. And though I do believe and have seen in my work helping with people

around the world that the social media has definitely increased

this comparison trap. I think we can easily argue that this comparison trap has been around pretty much since humans have existed.

We can compare ourselves to other people and the way they look when we're out and about.

We can compare ourselves to the neighbors and what they have or we don't have. We can compare ourselves to our neighbors and what they have or we don't have.

We can compare ourselves to our relatives and see how they're doing compared to us.

...