You know that girl who says “I think I failed that test” and ends up with a 99%? Ok, that’s not me. I’m telling you that so that you know when I say “I’m really terrible at yoga” that I’m not being falsely modest. I’m terrible. I’ve honestly never in my life been able to touch my toes. So for me, yoga is a constant exercise in humility.

Last Saturday I was taking a hot yoga class. (That’s 105 degrees if you didn’t know! OMG!) We were about 45 minutes in and working on balance poses. If I am good at anything in yoga, it’s balance poses. I don’t know why, but I can do them. So there I am balancing, sweating, and generally feeling pretty impressed with myself. Until I look over at the woman next to me. She’s not balanced, and it feels a little bit good to not be the worst one, for once. And then . . . I fall out of the pose. All balance lost! Dang it! I tried for the rest of the allotted time to get back into that pose and I could not do it.

Comparison is the thief of joy AND the thief of balance.

At the moment, I had to laugh to myself because I knew exactly what I had done. I’d left my business and gotten in someone else’s. I quit running my own race and started running hers.

Have you ever walked into someone else’s house, and suddenly really disliked your own (even if you had liked it perfectly fine when you left it 10 minutes earlier)? Rocked a cute outfit and felt great about you looked, until you saw someone else looking “even better”? Enjoyed your job and felt well compensated until you found out the person in the office next door was making more?

If you have not, you are a regular badass and you can stop reading now! Good work.

(I wonder if anyone quit reading?)

If you have felt like that, rest assured that you are in good company. Here’s a quick mindset change you can do in this situation.

Get back to your own business. Do that by asking what you love about yourself and what you’re doing. In the yoga situation, that would look like “I love that I’m here and I’m trying. I care about myself and my health and that’s awesome.”
If your feelings of comparison feel more like jealousy, check out this article and figure out why you’re feeling that way.

I’m Terrible at Yoga