I have never been a fan of competition.

When my friends and I used to go to the pool hall as teenagers, it often happened that no one had the will to win the game. Instead of sinking the last ball, we would just collect all the balls prematurely and rack them up again to start a new game, never knowing who was the “better” pool player. Basically, we just didn’t care enough.

However, now in my life—I find I am not interested in competition, because I care too much.

I care too much about all of us finding the healing we need in our lives, and this is impossible to fully embrace from a place of feeling like we need to compete with each other.

When we start to approach the world from the stance of wanting to be in a healing role, we stop caring about who wins and who loses, but instead start to choose our actions from a deep craving of wanting everyone to turn out okay.

Many of us, perhaps, don’t realize the extent to which we are in, when we are in a healing role.

Teaching a yoga class is a healing role.

Caring for a baby or child is a healing role.

Writing articles, and sharing them with others, is a healing role.

Talking to our friends about self-love and creating change in our lives is a healing role.

And I think this is a great thing.

I don’t think we have to worry about there being too many people trying to be healers in the world. It is not the type of thing that there is a cap on.

We need all of us!

Although competition isn’t something that tempts me—judging, comparing, putting myself above others and being damn sure I am completely inadequate to others is something I am very experienced at.

Obviously, this is a human trait we all have—comparing ourselves to others to try to gauge how we are doing, but I don’t think it serves us well.

It is a hard habit to break, because it can be very difficult to trust ourselves. We crave some type of acknowledgement from the outside world, that who we are is alright, and what we are doing is working out.

This is impossible to get.

Some days we are told we are doing a good job, and everyone loves us—and some days we are criticized, and it seems like the whole world hates us.

Looking for recognition from the outside world is a very difficult way to come to peace with ourselves.

The signs are very unclear.

And this is important to remember, because in our society we don’t just get to be healers.

We are healers—but we are also in relationships, also parents, also children to parents, also people trying to make money, run households, develop businesses and organize ourselves in a busy, demanding world.

And we spend a lot of our time wondering how to do this.

Wondering if anyone even wants our healing services and if we are good enough to even offer them.

But what I really want to say here is that we are all doing a good job. We are all reaching within ourselves, finding our own pain and transforming it into goodness.

We are touching one person—or five people, hundreds of people, or sometimes even thousands of  people—and we are encouraging them to do the same.

We are teaching skills and sharing ideas, and maybe these skills and ideas aren’t always the same, but they are all needed.

We are all different, and we all need different ways of approaching the healing journey.

If the intention at the root of our actions is to lessen suffering—then it is all good.

The best thing we can do—if we want to increase our impact as a light-worker, healer, helper or lover—is to worry less. We can calm down our own systems, and remember that we are more than just “plain old good enough”—we are great and powerful and appreciated by the universe. And then we can keep going.

Keep developing inspirational ideas about how to touch people’s lives. Keep waking up in the morning ready to be generous and compassionate, first to ourselves, and then letting it naturally emanate from there.

And we can keep uniting with our fellow helpers. We can say “good job” to them out loud if we are with them, or if we are just looking at a website, we can say it in our minds.

We don’t have to agree with every point other helpers are stating—but let’s not cut each other down in an attempt to be “right.”

Let’s recognize that we are all trying to help and give, in our own way. From this perspective, we can boost each other up, encourage each other on and know that through supporting each other in our helping endeavors and initiatives, we can increase our healing efforts and start to see global changes.

We can’t do it alone.

But we can’t do it together either, if we are tearing each other down.

The way another person embodies their inner helper in the world is not always going to look the same way that we do it.

This reality does not mean either way is less impactful or meaningful. It is just different.

The best thing we can do is see the intention for love and healing under the offering—admire it, appreciate it, encourage it and continue on with our own efforts.

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Relephant:

13 Tips for More Joyful & Productive Mornings.

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Author: Ruth Lera

Editor: Yoli Ramazzina

Photo: Flickr/elzoh