This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Queen's U chapter.

We live in a world where instant gratification and reassurance is highly valuable to us. With cell phones and social media, we are vulnerable to an overwhelming amount of information. It happens to the best of us. We turn on our phones to check our Instagrams and Facebooks for a little external validation, something we deem harmless, only to get lost in the abyss of Insta-stalking pretty girl after pretty girl.

Every single one of us is guilty of it. We get caught up playing the comparison game. We see a girl, and scroll through her pictures. We see how happy she looks, how thin and beautiful she is, and assume, wrongly, that her life must be absolutely perfect. They have the perfect boyfriend, an endless wardrobe, and is always travelling. We look at Instagram and decide we aren’t thin enough, our photos aren’t cute enough, and our lives aren’t nearly as exciting as anyone else’s.

Comparison is killing each of us little by little by reinforcing the idea in our heads that we aren’t ‘enough.’ I almost want to ban the word ‘enough’ from my vocabulary, because when you are constantly comparing yourself to others, you are never going to be ‘enough’ in every regard. Comparison tricks us into thinking that if only we had (fill in the blank), then we would be happy and our lives would be perfect.

That is a dangerous cycle of thinking, because as long as we keep comparing ourselves to others, we will never be enough. There will always be somebody out there who has something you don’t and you’ll continue to view yourself through the unattainable lens. Even if you somehow did reach whatever image you compared yourself to, another ideal will soon take over its place. We are always searching to be more, searching to be ‘enough.’

The only way to really kill comparison is to just stop. Be honest with yourself and be vulnerable. There’s no need to pretend like your life is perfect. That’s what everyone else does, and that’s what leads to the negative thoughts that you are not enough. People always put out their best face. Even legitimate models, like Alexis Ren. It is her job to look fit and be pretty. She’s a model. If you had the entire day every day to just prepare really healthy meals and workout for hours and then spend your photo shoot money on new clothes, then you’d be like that, too. But for most of us, our lives are full of other things. We can’t all be models. That’s HER life, and that’s all she does. We have other things to fill our lives and represent us.

So, celebrate yourself. Acknowledge your issues with comparison. Acknowledge that you believe others have it better than you. Once you acknowledge it, throw those thoughts out the window and love your body and your personality for who you are. Stop checking Instagram and refreshing the Snapchat story feed and live your life and enjoy it for all of its aspects, even the mundane ones. Life is a truly beautiful thing and we often forget how great we have it when we’re constantly wrapped up in what we don’t have. Instead, smile, and focus on all your blessings. I think that’s the key to happiness.

Stop Comparing Yourself to Social Media Models

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