Comparisons are a form of violence. When you believe you are not good enough, you will compare yourself to others.

Ahimsa, often translated as non-violence, is the first Yama as set out in the very well known text The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. The Yama on which all the others are built. It encompasses compassion for all beings and asks us to develop kindness, patience and tolerance for others as well as for ourselves.

And when we compare ourselves to others, we find ourselves lacking, which makes us feel cheated. In all the ways that we impose an outside image of ourselves into ourselves, we are stealing from the unfolding of our own uniqueness. All demands and expectations that we place on ourselves, steal from our own enthusiasm. A lack of belief in ourselves, low self-esteem, judgement, criticisms and demands for perfection are forms of self-abuse in which we destroy the very essence of our vitality.

When we are engaged in the joy and challenge of building ourselves, we automatically serve the world rather than steal from it.