One of the biggest drains on loving your body (and yourself) is comparisonitis. That is, when we compare ourselves favourably or negatively with someone else.
I used to suffer from it a lot in the negative sense… and my comparison person was Jennifer Aniston.
Jen is a few years older than me, she’s never had kids so I used to always think – I should be able to get the same body as her. No problem… but the big problem was I am not Jen. And I will never have her body because it’s hers!!
I also used to spend a lot of my time checking out other women’s tummies. Are they bigger than mine, or smaller? How do they keep themselves so trim? What are they doing that I’m not? Why wasn’t I born with a naturally skinny tummy? And I would find myself missing half the conversation because I was so transfixed with other people’s bellies.
It’s not easy to admit this… I’m not proud of it… but I also think I’m not the only one.
Because we are programed to compare ourselves to others.
We are made to feel inferior so we’ll buy more products, try more diets and get caught up in mindless consumerism. There is nothing wrong with buying things, don’t get me wrong! But when it’s from a sense of not feeling good enough, then there is a problem.
The other form of comparisonitis that I see a lot with my clients is when they feel like they’ve got it better than others… even in their pain.
I have clients that say things like “My back pain is really terrible but there are people that are much worse off than me”.
And I must admit that even though I don’t have comparisonitis issues regarding my body anymore, I still suffer from it a bit when it comes to business. I wonder how some people are further ahead than me, or why I’m more successful than others.
In my opinion, comparisonitis is just another form of insecurity. But it can be a way to let yourself off the hook… “If I’m never going to look like Jennifer Aniston then I may as well eat all the chocolate” or “My pain is not as bad as hers so I’ll just put up with it”
The best way to cure comparisonitis is to just do you. Do the work to look after your own health, your own self-esteem, your own self-worth.
And to do that I recommend trying the first part of The Body Love Method™ - Engage and Release.
To get started you need to make an intention. You need to decide that you are just going to do you.
Secondly, declutter. This might mean cleaning up your social media so you aren’t triggered by people to compare yourself to. I know for me that giving up weekly magazines and gossip websites helped me a lot with my Jen comparisons.
The third step is forgiveness. This might mean forgiving yourself for all the wasted time spent in comparisonitis or it might mean forgiving your object of comparison. Most likely it means forgiving both.
And finally, you create positive anchors. Surround yourself with things that bring you positive thoughts and keeps you focused on you.
This is what I teach my VIPs in the Body Love Method™ program. If you’d like to learn more about the program book in a free body love consultation and you might just cure your comparisonitis forever!
