Healing is Not a Competition. It’s Yoga.

Somewhere along the way, we started ranking pain.

“At least it wasn’t as bad as…”

“That’s nothing compared to what I went through.”

“Other people have it worse.”

We started treating healing like a competition:

Who has the most significant trauma?

Who’s the most self-aware?

Who cries the hardest in the group?

But healing doesn’t work like that.

It isn’t scored.

It isn’t performative.

It’s not something you can “win.”

It’s yoga.

It’s your mat.

It’s your breath.

Nobody else is in your pose with you.

And no one gets to decide whether you’re doing it “right.”

Pain isn’t something to categorize or minimize.

It’s something to witness, gently, without trying to one-up, out-suffer, or shrink yourself.

The trees don’t compare themselves to each other.

The birds don’t compete for who sings better.

Everything in nature just is.

When I remember that, I stop trying to be better than anyone else.

I just try to be with myself.

Right here.

Right now.

Without judgment.

Remembering that healing is not a competition brings me back to myself every time.

A Slice of Humble Pie:

Your pain doesn’t have to be the worst to matter.

Your healing doesn’t have to be dramatic to be real.

Reflection:

Where have you felt pressure to compare your struggle or shrink it for someone else’s comfort?

What would it feel like to approach your healing like yoga... no performance, just presence?

Affirmation:

My healing is not a race. I can grow at my own pace.