Being Happy - Part 3

Another common cause of unhappiness is when we compare ourselves to others. We have the habit of comparing anything from our school results to our appearance or even the kind of parents we have. And most of the time, because of all these comparisons we become unhappy, why is that so? Well, that is because most of the time when we are making comparison, we compare upwards, that mean we compare with people who are better off than ourselves. So the best solution is not to compare and you will be a happier person. However, if you have to compare, do compare downwards, compare with those who are worse off than you. Compare yourself to those people starving in Africa or those dying in a war-torn countries then you will realise how fortunate you are to be alive. So let's say you saw your good friend wearing a pair of the lastest-designed shoes and comparing it to own pair of torn and worn-out shoes, you would feel embarrassed and unhappy. But on the other hand if you compare yourself to another friend who has no legs to wear any shoes, will you realise then how lucky you are to have a pair of legs. Does that mean that your legless friend will have to feel unhappy throughout his life? Not necessary, he just needs to compare himself to those with deformed limbs and he would be a much happier person. Thus, we can see that there will always be people who are less fortunate than ourselves no matter how bad we think we are. So, either you don't compare at all or compare downwards and you will always be a happy person.