I love this quote by Iyanla Vanzant - "Comparison is an act of violence against the self.”

With internet access today at the fingertips from smartphone devices, it makes it easy to constantly compare things like body image, social popularity, academic or sporting achievements, and all the materialistic stuff. To be interested in and admire others is one thing, but to constantly compare yourself to others gives birth to the cancer of comparison.

 Social media feeds only show life ‘highlights’, not the ‘whole package’ (the highs and lows). If you compare your life (the ‘whole package’) to the lives of others (the ‘highlights’) as a measure of your own value, you will lose every time, because you will naturally be drawn to the things you don’t have that others do, rather than the things you do have that others don’t. It blinds you from seeing your uniqueness, and only feeds the bad wolf with confidence-crushing messages, leading to feelings of inadequacy. 

(extract from Get the Monkeys off Your Back)  

The grass is not greener on the other side. The grass is greener where you water it. Focus on watering and running your own lane. 

STRATEGIES FOR STUDENTS

The number one killer of procrastination is scheduling really small goals. 

Break large, overwhelming tasks into small bite-sized pieces to reduce the build-up of stress and anxiety. 

Breaking it up not only paves the way for immediate action, but also, by biting away piece by piece, increases your confidence levels when you see consistent progress. 

Whenever you feel stressed and overwhelmed by your workload, think of the watermelon principle. How do you eat a watermelon? One slice and bite at a time. Your bites are your confidence boosters. You’ll no longer need to cram and stress yourself out. 

(extract from Get the Monkeys off Your Back)  

As we watch leaves fluttering to the ground in autumn, we are reminded that nature's cycles are mirrored in our lives. Autumn is a time for letting go and releasing things that have been a burden. All the religious traditions pay tribute to such acts of relinquishment. Autumn is the right time to practice getting out of the way and letting Spirit take charge of our lives. In Kinds of Power, James Hillman, the elder statesman of contemporary depth psychology, challenges us to learn from others about this: "For what the actor tries to achieve on stage is to 'get out of the way' so that the character he or she is portraying can come fully out. So, too, the writer and the painter; they have to get out of the way of the flow of the work onto the paper and the canvas." 

Buddhist teacher Sharon Saltzberg writes in Lovingkindness about one of the offshoots of letting go: "Generosity has such power because it is characterised by the inner quality of letting go or relinquishing. Being able to let go, to give up, to renounce, to give generously — these capacities spring from the same source within us. When we practice generosity, we open to all of these liberating qualities simultaneously. They carry us to a profound knowing of freedom, and they also are the loving expression of that same state of freedom." Autumn, then, is the perfect season to give generously of your time and talents to others.

An extract from: MERCY REFLECTIONS Anne Ferguson, Mission Animation for the Parramatta Sisters of Mercy