"Our fear of inferiority and the harsh judgements of others seals everything inside us. This is surely our False Self taking control because it fears all loss of control."

 (Immortal Diamond, The Search for our True Self, by Richard Rohr)

I remember the first time I had to make a presentation for one of my Masters' Degree in Counseling courses at Florida International University. Although I had already graduated from a University in Argentina, a presentation in English at a new university was enough to make me feel deeply vulnerable. Looking for support, I went to the University Counseling Services; the counselor I saw confirmed my fear that my big hurdle was presenting in a foreign language. The fear of being seeing as inferior by non-foreign students made me feel unprotected and with no tools at hand. Finally, the time came to present, and while waiting for the student who came before me to finish talking, my stress response made me turn the head towards the classroom door. Fortunately, I chose fight over flight, stayed put and did my presentation. Many years have gone by since that first presentation, and now I can say that I don’t lose sleep over what others think of me. I now understand that we all follow different life paths, and comparing myself to others is a nonsensical waste of time. As a matter of fact, our task does not have to do with others, but only with ourselves. Ours is a solitary undertaking that has to do with analyzing our thoughts and behaviors, and decide if they make us feel that we are building a superb sense of self.