on comparison: keep your eyes on your own mat

This morning I was in a lecture with one of my favourite thought leaders and teachers, Lindsay Mack. Lindsay was talking about tarot and the three of pentacles, specifically, when they said something that resonated so deeply yet had an echo of something familiar. It felt like something I have always known, but presented in such a way that I was turning over a familiar stone in my hand and seeing the other side for the first time, in a new light. Lindsay said:

“Keep your eyes on your own paper. Radically honour your own path. Your path is not anyone else’s. Your work will never come through anyone else the way it comes through YOU.

By choosing your own work, it frees other people to do theirs. There is a powerful ripple effect when we start to embody that kind of permissioning.”

— Lindsay Mack, Rewilding the Tarot

Woof.

In the three of pentacles, we are working with the invitation of leaning into supportive community and allowing others to shine without comparison.

In yoga, we often say “keep your eyes on your own mat.” Your practice is just that, yours. So what if the person in the front row is floating into a handstand? Is her inversion taking away from your heart opener? The power behind your breath? No. Eyes on your own mat. Comparison is the thief of joy, and all that. But what happens when we really embody that? Yoga is not just on the mat (this isn’t a new concept, but sometimes we lose sight) it is how we carry that practice into the world. The meditation cushion and the yoga mat are the training zone, not the arena. Life is the arena. The traffic jam is the arena. The disagreement with your partner is the arena. The person walking glacially slow in front of you when you’re running precariously close to your appointment time is the arena. The friend disappointing you is the arena. The challenging moment is the arena.

What does it mean to keep your eyes on your own mat in a world where we are consistently inundated with other people’s perspectives? Social media is a front row seat to the perception of other people’s lives. It is a window, it is a glimpse, and yet it is easy to get caught up in comparison. How can you not? It’s the human affliction. Maybe it is to know that someone else’s beauty is not a lack of your own. To know that even though it has been done before, it has never been done by you. The world needs your work, your words, and your heart. By being your own weird self and doing your own weird thing, you are giving permission to those around you to do their own thing.

Again, maybe none of this is brand new information, but sometimes the same concept finds you in a new way. Something clicks and it finally integrates into your life. Sometimes the same smooth stone you have been carrying in your pocket just needs to be turned over to the other side.

Stay weird — and eyes on your own mat,

ty