Hey, welcome back to practicing human, the podcast where every day we're getting a little better at life.

I am your host, Corey Miskara, and in today's episode we're going to be talking about working with the comparing mind.

More to come on that in a moment, but first let's settle in with the sound of the bells. Okay, so the comparing mind.

Chances are if you're breathing and you have a mind,

you are familiar with the comparing mind.

It seems to be a normal part of being a human being, constantly assessing

ourselves in relationship to other people. And chances are you've also found yourself bummed out when you see people doing things that maybe you perceive to be

superior to what you're doing.

They're making more money than me.

They don't have all these racing thoughts like I do.

Their family life isn't messed up like mine is or even like they go out with friends on a

weekends when I would just rather read a book.

You know, this is like the comparing mind at play and it can create a lot of stress for us,

especially as the social creatures where we want to fit in, and it's normal to be assessing

ourselves in relationship to other people.

But one thing I've found helpful to work with this is to just ask myself the question.

If everyone were experiencing the same thing that I'm experiencing, would it still be as much of an issue for me?

So for instance, if all of your friends made the same amount of money, if everyone's mind was racing with non-stop thoughts, if you knew

that all people had some family issues, and if staying into Reed on a Friday night was the status quo, would all of these things still be an issue? Would you still beat yourself up over it? And chances are the answer is no. The issue with these things is not

so much in the things themselves, but it's in our comparison of those things

to other people and what we think of them in relationship to what others might be going through.

The majority of our stress comes from thinking

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