Perfection does exist!

Do you find that you compare yourself to others? Maybe you feel inadequate at times? Less than perfect? Perhaps you hear that little voice inside that says you don’t measure up? That your particular outfit, style, skin complexion, physique etc etc etc (the list goes on) is, for some reason, not good enough? We can probably all recall a time when we saw another person with a really nice shirt and then looked at our own, only to notice the slight stain or hole, and thought ‘they look much better than I do’? Or on your make up free, or deliberate ‘daggy day’, you ran into someone you knew and wished you could have fallen into a hole somewhere (or found yourself darting down the pet food isle, when you didn’t even own a pet!). You know what I’m talking about! Social comparison is a real thing. In fact, we’re sort of pre-programmed to react to others in social settings and make quick assumptions and judgements. You see, we sort of became lazy as a species when it came to thinking! This was for good reason (…..so perhaps I’m being a bit harsh when I say ‘lazy’. Maybe ‘super intelligent’ or ‘clever’ is more accurate and much nicer): why spend loads of time weighing up the pros and cons of a person or situation, getting to know their back story and making an informed decision, when there was a sabre-toothed tiger to kill or run away from? Thus we sort of evolved to make quick decisions! Unfortunately, in today’s society our threats are not as ‘in your face’ as a tiger – instead, they’re in our minds! I like to think of evolution as doing a wonderful job to keep us alive as a species, but then it crashed and burned and caused us to kind of go backwards: what used to keep us alive (i.e., heightened awareness of threat and danger) is now hurting us (i.e., increased stress and anxiety about things that aren’t directly in front of us)! With the increase of stress related, psychological disorders, and psychosomatic illnesses, it’s no wonder that, according to Yoga Journal, Yoga is one of the biggest movers and shakers in the world of sport!

Anyway, what has this got to do with being perfect? Oh yeah, I had a point! The point is this: why do we continue to think of ourselves as less than perfect? Why do we often have this internal, core schema of ‘I’m not good enough’? Isn’t it ironic that our imperfection comes directly from within! As far as I am concerned, we’re all actually perfect, despite the fact that we’re less than perfect! WHAT?? (That doesn’t make sense, right?). Hear me out! Enter mindfulness (of course) – being in the present moment, non-judgmentally. Mindfulness is about moment-specificness (ok, so I made up the word ‘specificness’, but it gets the point across, I HOPE), not future-driven fiction. (It’s fiction because it hasn’t happened yet, thus it’s not fact, and if it’s not fact, it’s fiction……). Have I lost you yet? Possibly……When we compare fact to fiction (what we are versus what we wish to be) the conclusion is usually, ‘I’m less than perfect’, ‘I’m not what, or who, or where I want to be’. Mindfulness teaches us to stay in the present moment, be in the now, and work with the fact of the moment, not the fantasy of the future. By doing so you’ll soon realise that you are, indeed, perfect, in this moment. You are the perfect version of you, right now! How do I realise this, you ask? Answer these questions:

-Why are you enough, as you are, right now?

-What do you compare yourself to that robs you of realising your own worth, right now?

-What insecurities, doubts and judgements do you make about yourself that keep you from realising your own perfection?

-Can you now, not be the you that you are, right now?

-Are you, what and who you are, right now?

-So how can you be better, right now?

-So how are you not perfect then?

I’ll leave you with this, with thanks from a very dear friend of mine (she’ll know who she is when she reads this). If what I’ve said above is too hard or too confusing, remember this: if you see someone who you believe is perfect, remember that perfect people do poos too!