We all do it, it’s true. But indulging in this sentiment for too long isn’t good for you. Feeling superior to someone else is the least effective way to feel better about yourself. Why? First, you do so by comparing lists of your pros vs. their cons, generally focusing on their cons and how your money/home/education/talent/lovers/looks are better. This is a negative process of subtraction and negative vibrations (when they overwhelm all positive ones) will attract poorer consequences.

It’s wonderful to empathize when someone is struggling, to help them in any way you can and then to give thanks that at this moment you are not suffering this particular problem.

It’s wonderful to realize, as I did the other day, that even if being a self-promoting self-employed musician and writer is difficult, I have so many blessings to be thankful for. Further, many others — despite facing far more daunting obstacles of poverty, addiction, violence, discrimination, history, etc — have succeeded wildly beyond what I’ll ever know in their own lifetimes.

“Into each life some rain must fall… but too much is falling in mine,” as the old song goes. There will be times like that. There have been times like that. It’s so easy to look at someone and imagine they’ve never suffered or struggled. You simply don’t know. You simply don’t. Look instead at their shining light, at the source energy coursing through them — in some cases almost completely purely — and BE INSPIRED. Fly with them. Draft off them, like a racer does — in a good way, not wishing them ill. Their success shows you what’s possible. Just as the world’s suffering shows you what dangers await.

Success is lovely, but it is hollow. Feeling superior is hollow. You are measuring your worth against another’s. Stop. Realize one thing: We are all one. The people, the plants, the rocks, the animals, the sky. We are all conscious, I am starting to believe that. Everything is. If you stop thinking for a second, you will notice this. A tremendous vibrating reality that cannot possibly be anything other than alive.

And if that’s too much to believe, simply look at the question, again, of superiority. If there were no worms, if there were no bees, if there were no oceans covering most of our globe, would you be alive? You’re in the web of life. Drink from the flowing energy and know: you are alive, and so is everything else.