About eight years ago, I decided to work on myself by taking acting classes to combat my shyness. The thought of public speaking caused me immense stress and mental spasms, leading to complete inarticulateness in front of a microphone.

I found an excellent director to teach us. However, even these lessons caused spasms since I had to complete homework and then demonstrate my progress to the group.

My entire group seemed to me a gathering of incredible talents who didn't even need to learn anything. They probably were. Time after time, I overcame these spasms, and it became less scary. Especially when the lessons ended and real life began – they enriched me greatly, embodying the phrase "difficult in training, easy in battle."

But there was one very sad "BUT." Compared to my acting classmates, I felt like the most timid and untalented person. I had always prided myself on being a mother of three, a homemaker, and a writer for intellectual journals. My complete inability to soar before the audience disheartened me!

I shared my pain with our teacher. I said, "Look, I've already managed to shout on stage, that was an assignment, but I'll never be able to imitate any animal! And everyone else, look at them: they transform into squirrels, cats, penguins... your lessons don't help me at all, alas!"

To which the teacher replied, "Why don't they help? Just try to understand one very important rule: NEVER compare yourself to others. Compare yourself ONLY TO YOURSELF!"

I felt relieved. Indeed, I was making tiny steps toward liberation. I shouted on stage, and I can almost recite poetry without gasping for breath. And as for animals – well, I can't embody a squirrel or a crocodile...

This advice lifted my spirits, and I wanted to share it with you! This isn't just about acting or public speaking – most of us may never need that. It concerns a very important feeling – you'll be surprised! – envy. This burning, heavy sensation is familiar to oh so many! And we all know how wrong it is, and how important it is to fight it, "don't envy, you're a Christian, you're a good person!" – does it work? Not really...

So, I begin to apply this knowledge to life: "don't compare with others." Some of my friends' lives seem simpler, easier, more beautiful. But stop: does this mean I would trade even a piece, even a tiny bit of my piercing and complicated life for an easier one? Not at all, not a single inch. As I told my children long ago, and now we laugh and rejoice about it: "Why did God give me all the very best? The best husband, the best children in the world, the best dogs, the best little house, the best neighbors, the best pines around the house?.."

Now, my grown-up children remember and marvel: it’s true. And I, and my children, go through spasms and pains on our own path, which is incomparable, it’s ours. We become – or strive to become – a little better and a little stronger – every hour and moment of our lives.

We can only compare ourselves to ourselves – a moment, an hour, a day ago. In our hands – by the grace of God – is the work on ourselves. And others – they are also wonderful, smart, talented, kind, and brave. But the Lord gave us all this, this life. Incomparable. Complicated. Happy. What an interesting result of my theatrical exercises: not comparing means not envying!

Original article: radiovera.ru/mysli-pro-zavist-anna-leonteva.html