The Comparison Trap & How Hypnosis Can Set You Free
This isn’t new - comparison thinking. What I mean here is comparing or measuring ourselves up to others, and it has been around for as long as humans have had egos. It’s an ancient trap, but social media has supercharged it. We’ve had decades to adjust, but it only seems to be getting worse. At least two generations into the social media experiment, we are more anxious, less satisfied, and drowning in an endless cycle of not-enough-ness.
Social media and advertising often promote illusions that keep us suffering, unintentionally or intentionally. We all know that what we see on our screens isn’t fully “real” - it’s an edited, distorted version of life that triggers our emotions, exploits our insecurities, and keeps us hooked, often by design. But, quite naturally, we still construct imaginary self-talk stories of inadequacy with comparison thinking.
“We suffer more in imagination than in reality.” - Seneca
Seneca and his fellow Stoics - among others like the yogis and sages of Eastern wisdom traditions - recognized that most suffering is self-inflicted, created in the mind by the stories we tell ourselves.
But they also recognized that when we can see through these illusions, we reclaim our power.
The Perfect Illusion: You’re Only Seeing Half the Picture
Social media and advertising represent partial reality - often just the great, fun, sexy, exciting parts. The influencer with the “perfect” body? You don’t see the dozens of posed shots, the filter-fiddling, the Facetune edits, and the body insecurities. The entrepreneur flaunting success? You don’t see the failed attempts, the debt, and the anxious sleepless nights.
What you see is only a highly curated, filtered version of life - and at some level we do know this. Yet on the fly, your mind absorbs it as the whole story. That’s where the damage begins.
Comparison fuels an unconscious narrative. “They have what I don’t.” “I must be behind.” “I’m not enough.” Or the flip-side: “I’m way sexier/more successful/smarter/holier/more evolved than that person.” These are all ego stories. And like most ego stories, they’re built on distortion, illusion, and partial truths.
The Emotional Cost of the Comparison Trap
Comparison isn’t harmless. It often breeds feelings of inadequacy, hopelessness, shame - fueling a constant sense of unworthiness:
Inadequacy often sounds like, “There’s something wrong with me.”
Hopelessness can sound like, “No matter what I do, I’ll never measure up.”
Shame can show up in our heads as, “I should be doing more. I should be more.”
These emotions don’t often motivate - they paralyze. That is until you decode the signal your subconscious is sending you via these emotions.
The more you compare, the more you scroll, searching for something that will never come - validation that you are enough. Social media and advertising are designed to keep you chasing an unattainable standard, feeding a loop of self-doubt and external validation.
But here’s the truth: feeling inadequate isn’t a verdict - it’s a signal. The discomfort isn’t proof that you’re lacking; it’s your subconscious waving a flag, saying, “Hey, you have an unmet need here!”
Instead of spiraling into self-doubt, pause. What’s the thought behind this feeling? What need, want, or desire is calling for your attention? Maybe it’s a need for more skill, more support, real validation, or even just a shift in perception. When you can decode the message (and hypnosis helps here!), inadequacy can transform from a trap into a tool for real growth.
The Social Media Addiction Loop
Your brain wasn’t built for endless scrolling - there’s no natural end to the process, and it’s never fully satisfying. Platforms are engineered to exploit your dopamine system, creating a cycle of craving and reward. The likes, the comments, the notifications, the novelty and curiosity of the feed - they tickle the mind, reinforce the habit, but never truly satisfy. The result is usually just squandered time and a constant hunger for external validation and/or gratification, pulling you further from yourself.
And the more disconnected you become from yourself and your own inherent value, the more comparison thinking takes over.
But when deeper awareness is reclaimed - when you step back, quiet the thinking mind, look within, and see the game for what it is - the spell is broken. When no longer entranced by illusion, the mind can return to clarity, presence, and deeper knowing.
Reprogramming & Deprogramming
In effect, advertising and social media work like a form of societal hypnosis - they facilitate and entrench false beliefs that we’re never enough, always lacking, always needing the next product, filter, or trend to be complete. But this illusion can be dissolved.
Hypnosis isn’t just about relaxing or quieting the thinking mind. It’s a process of reprogramming - and sometimes deprogramming. With hypnosis, we can easily clear out the external noise in order to reconnect with and integrate the deeper parts of your consciousness that recognize truth from illusion.
And the deeper truth is often very simple: you are already whole. When untangled from illusion, we can truly know this, feel this, and live into it. What you seek has always been within you. You just can’t often see or feel it when your attention is hijacked by endless scrolling. And as they say, energy flows where attention goes.
Hypnosis: The Fast Track to Breaking Free
Willpower alone won’t always ‘stop the scroll.’ To break the behavioral habits and the cognitive habit of comparison thinking, the solution lies deeper - in the subconscious. This is where hypnosis comes in.
Hypnosis rewires the internal narratives that keep you stuck in comparison mode, while also addressing the habitual components that keep the problem in place. It dissolves the false stories that social media and advertising feed you and reconnects you with your own truth.
Hypnosis can help you:
Reclaim your own desires (i.e. what really matters to you and lights you up).
Hypnosis helps you separate your true needs from the artificial standards imposed by social media and advertising. What actually fulfills you?
Break free from external validation.
Instead of chasing approval online, hypnosis builds deep self-worth from within, so you no longer rely on comparison to feel “enough.”
Stop the scroll habit.
By addressing the subconscious triggers behind compulsive scrolling, hypnosis rewires your brain for presence, mindfulness, and real-world connection.
Real Life is Happening Now
The next time you catch yourself lost in the scroll, ask: What am I actually looking for?
Because the truth is, it’s not on your screen. It’s in your life - in your own whole being - waiting for you to wake up and reclaim it.
Hypnosis can help you do just that.
Ready to break free from the comparison trap? Let’s talk.
