Sushiksha

What is the first step towards happiness? It's Accepting what you are, and what you have.

We all compare ourselves with a lot of people. It might be someone from our friends, family or maybe a completely unknown person but deep down we get unsatisfied about it.  When am I going to be like him or her?  When will I get so much money so that I can enjoy my life?  We have a lot of "When" questions in our mind and we must stop creating such questions. Whether we do upward or downward comparisons, we may end up sad. What should you do in such a case? I also was a victim of this and I'll share what I do when I get a thought of comparison. 

I never enjoyed anything because I always used to compare whatever I have. One day I questioned myself  when will I be happy if I don't enjoy what I have now?  When will that time come when I will have no "When" question in my mind?  It might come tomorrow, or a week later or maybe a year or a decade later; Till then will I be like this?  Or what if I don't have energy when I have everything else?  Since then, I decided to enjoy each and everything right from that moment. So, I took the decision but I didn't know how to enjoy it because I never had concentrated on what I had so the first thing I did was to appreciate myself for anything I did and started being grateful for everything I have. I started looking for each and everything that I missed and started living them. I started accepting everything I have and whenever I got a question of comparison in my mind I answered it myself that it will happen when it has to happen and I didn't forget what I wanted because having a goal is very important for growth. I kept all those when related questions as my challenges and then started working on it along with enjoying the process. 

By doing these I found changes in myself. Now I love myself more than anything and I accept everything equally. I care about myself more than anything because I now believe in self-love. If you don't love yourself and accept what you have, how will you ever be happy?  No matter what you have, how much money you have, if you don't accept it and enjoy the moment you are living, then your ‘When’ will never come.

I would like to end this with a beautiful quote that I once heard from a friend; "Self love is not being selfish, it is the path for happiness. "