Comparison is something that eats away at our hearts slowly.
It is a thief that steals our joy, peace and promises for a better tomorrow.
When we spend our days comparing ourselves to one another we don’t allow ourselves to discover who we truly are.
I grew up the daughter of an identical twin.
Over and over, season through season, we watched our Mums struggle with comparison and competition.
They navigated its poison well, but I am still so aware of the difficulty it imposes.
Yesterday I started an online course with Brene Brown. I have been a little addicted to her writing this last year and I stumbled across this course and decided to have a go.
It is all about living a wholehearted life and allowing creativity to inspire and heal those parts of us that have been suppressed and broken.
The course walks slowly through the book I finished a few weeks ago called ‘The gifts of imperfection’.
Two of the exercises we were given today was to draw a self portrait (mine is above), writing a few words beside it about what we believe about ourselves.
Then another exercise was to write down our creative wounds, scars that have held us contained in our creativity (I went back to a day in my journal that I missed and reclaimed that little blank page of failure). We were to write in red pen words that have impacted us from our upbringing. Words that have been spoken over our lives and our creativity
Some of my words were;
Too much
Too loud
Too fat
Too pushy
Too messy…
Things that had been spoken over my life that caused me often to compare myself with others as I created.
As much as I love blogging, it is like a double edged sword. The comparison to others online, the negative criticism, the competition, so easily can take over and affect my output.
Brene asked us to paste over those scars with bandaids and then write words of recovery and belief in their place.
I wrote words like
enough
strong
leader
loved
purposed
and more.
It is amazing how much comparison robs us of our peace. It is a thief. It steals from our today and plunders our tomorrow.
What are you spending your days comparing yourself to?
Mummy bloggers?
The type of prams others have?
The house you live in?
The job you have?
Someone’s instagram account?
When we live in a place of constant comparison we are paralysed from making changes that are necessary to live to life of creativity and inspiration we were designed to.
You are a creative being, even if you don’t believe that you are. You were created in the image of the most amazing Creator.
Maybe you need to do a couple of these exercises as well and post them in your 365 journal together.
I am scared and excited about this 6 week course I have now embarked upon.
I hoping to embrace my imperfections and continue along this inspiration journey of 2014.
See you tomorrow.
Amanda
