2When you walk into a room, it's not uncommon to size people up and decide how each person rates in comparison to yourself. This is instinctual behavior, possibly programmed from an earlier era before civilization evolved, when a person's status might determine his eligibility for an allotment of food or a comfortable place to live or a mate. Though to compare and compete is our first impulse, you can make the decision to step back from that and learn to feel equal to anyone you encounter.
- Become aware of how you are feeling at any given time around others. When you are not aware of your feelings, you behave blindly. When you behave blindly, then you have no freedom to choose what your actions or attitudes will be. When you encounter unfamiliar people, you need to take a moment or two or assess how your mind and body is reacting to them. Is your body stiffening up or relaxing? Are you feeling detached? Is your mind racing? Before you can get where you want to be, you have to know where you are.Once you notice that your body is stiffening up from stress or that your mind is racing with comparisons, you can choose to interrupt that compulsive mental action rather than letting yourself be enslaved by it. One way to do that is by a kind of on-the-spot meditation. You can notice the thought or notice the feeling and then simply let it go. That applies both in cases where you are feeling inferior and superior. Become aware of your feeling, take a look at it and then set it aside. Know that you have a choice in this situation and that you have the ability to liberate yourself from ideas that make you miserable.If you have thoughts or feelings of inadequacy or inferiority, present your mind with an opposite thought and notice how your minds shifts. Presenting your mind with an opposite thought creates a see-saw effect, with the negative and positive thoughts balancing each other out. If you feel badly about yourself, try thinking "I am a child of God, who is the sovereign of the universe. Therefore, I descend from a royal lineage." Such a thought is not simply a ploy; it is absolute reality. This kind of thought won't make you grandiose, but it will balance out your mind and put you on an even keel.Know that God is the only really superior being in the universe; the rest of us are all God's children and heirs. It is God who runs the universe and has all the power, and therefore, any ideas you have about others being above yourself is superstition. Live in awe of God and be afraid of no one else.Remember that as God's heir, you are a magical and wondrous person. Nothing about you is mundane, plain, or inadequate in any way. Think to yourself, "I was created by God and God does not make junk." When you say that to yourself with conviction, you will feel equal to anyone.
