This is a YouTube video titled "Be Present to Your Life" created in January 2011. It features a single speaker, Alexander J. Johnson, sharing a personal reflection and motivational talk about the pitfalls of comparing oneself to others and the importance of being present and loving oneself. The content is a monologue focused on mindfulness and self-acceptance.
Hello everyone, it's Alexander J. Johnson. So I have a quick idea for you today. And the idea is an epiphany that I had in my meditation practice this morning and it was around comparison. So we all have people that we admire and we respect and whatever. But what I noticed this morning, and I know that I'm not the only one that has this like this comparing game going on in our heads where we have certain people in certain domains that we compare ourselves to and most of the time we're not equal to them. And it's they're doing it so much better than us, or they're smarter than us, or they eat healthier than us, or they have more money than us and they're this. And whatever the stories are, we create these stories around these people and then we start comparing ourselves to them and we're comparing to like this like perfection that we see in them. So not only do we do it with them, but then we do it with this person here and this person here and this person here. And then we have like 20 people in our heads that are doing things way better than we are doing them. And then we just feel poopy and crappy. So the idea is to be present who with your life, be totally aware and conscious and present to the unfolding of your day to day life, moment to moment of what is present in your life and just letting your life unfold and being you fully and giving up this idea of comparing. You know, I noticed that I would not be present with what was going on in my life and I jump in my mind over to this fake story about this other person who's totally rocking it, doing it way better than I am. And you know, it's just madness. Literally, it's just madness. So I think we need to be really aware and conscious of the times that we are comparing in our heads and when I don't really think it ever serves us, but when it's really detrimental to our well being and to us being fully aware of all of our gifts and all of our talents because we are all so talented and gifted and if we could just love ourselves and give ourselves the credit and the mojo that we deserve, our lives unfold magically. So giving up the comparison, giving up the BS stories that we have about other people and how they're great and we're not doing it right, we need to just do our life, be present to our life, live in integrity with our values and show up fully. What I also notice is that a lot of times we think if we get there then we'll be happy and if we're there, we'll get happy. And if I do this, then I'll be happy. And it's, it's cliche, but it's so true of choose to be happy now. Choose to be present to your life right now. Choose to see all of the great things in your life right now. Choose to be grateful right now. Choose to be empowered. Choose to be confident, choose to be radiant. Choose to be anything that you want to be. But show up so showing up fully for your life, letting go of criticism, letting go of gossip, letting go of any negativity around people's life, you know, just get out of it. Stay out of people's business, get in your own business. We have our own stuff right here and right now that we need to work on. And our life is unfolding so we don't want to miss a minute of it because it is delicious and divine and splendidly imperfect. But that makes it perfect. So that's the idea for today. Stop comparing in your head. Be present to your life as it's unfolding right now and it's unfolding with perfection. Trust in the process. Trust that you are being guided. Trust that your life is awesome and that you're awesome and love yourself. Gotta come back to the love. So love yourself. And that is the idea for today. So let me know your thoughts on it, what your experiences have been with comparison and jumping into other stories and jumping out of your present life to go over and dance in somebody else's life. So I'd love to hear your thoughts on this and I hope you have a yummy present. Present filled, Is that even the term that I want? I hope that you have a present. Present filled day. Alright. Anyways, I'm gonna go. So I hope you have a great one and I will.
