How do I overcome my inferiority complex?

Mago Kim, Yoga Instructor

Let’s reflect on the inferiority complex that I’m feeling right now. It could be about any number of things – maybe I was too short, or had a bad acne, sucked and math, or got defeated in a competition, etc. But if you look deeper, those things are merely the tip of an iceberg which appears on the surface, but much bigger, deeper rooted minds are hiding beneath the surface of the water.

Inferiority is practically the most fundamental root of the human mind.

It’s not just about feeling that I’m not as good as others when I compare my appearance or ability to others. The feeling of always just not having enough, not being enough itself is inferiority. Human mind takes pictures of all the experience that we have in life. And based on those experiences and information, we constantly compare them inside our minds and judge whether something is good or bad. When you think about the fact that the concept of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ only exists in us humans, you will realize how trapped we are in this frame of mind that sees everything as either black or white. And the mind that judges one’s own self with those frames of mind is the inferiority.👀

We often think that inferiority comes from comparing myself with others, but if you look deeper, you could say that the mind of inferiority can be defined as my mind perceiving myself to be ‘incomplete’. In a way, this is a mind without any solution because we were born incomplete to begin with.

What does it mean to be incomplete? It literally means to be not complete. We have been living in this world with the incomplete mind from birth. If we were the same mind as this universe which is complete, there would be no reason to feel stress or any pain in life. Because universe, this word is complete just the way it is.

Let’s compare that existence that we could either call universe, the Truth, or the nature’s flow, with myself. Why are we not like this existence?🙄

One of the things that I’ve realized through near 10 years of meditation is that we always suffer from inferiority because we have countless illusions and the false self, which is the ego, in our minds. They keep snowballing on their own, building thicker walls around itself for protection.

Our opponent isn’t with another person in front of me – it’s with that monster inside my mind. All kinds of illusions inside me, the countless emotions that I feel about myself, and the devious whispers, those are the monster. If you are to eliminate those things and escape from the inferiority, the first thing you should do is face the monster.💀

There’s a way to do it. It is to practice to accept myself just the way I am instead of trying to become complete, and to nurture and take care of myself. Here are the steps to do it:

1.Reflect on my mind

2.Admit the inferiority that I have. (Even simply realizing that we are not perfect or complete can put us at ease.)

3.Discard the ego and the greed that I have.

And of course, step 3 is the hardest part. It’s best to do meditation to help with this process, because that’s what meditation is about – discarding and emptying my mind. 🧘‍♀️

As you continue to discard the false image of yourself, the ego, you will no longer be fooled by your inferiority. You won’t be devaluing yourself anymore or have a negative perspective about yourself anymore either. Once the existence of the ‘false self’ disappears, you can have the complete mind like the universe, which is your true self. The constant struggle to reach perfection stops the moment you find your true self because the Truth is already complete as it is. The incomplete self disappears, and the complete self takes place instead.

It’s not necessarily bad to feel inferiority, because it can give me an opportunity to reflect on myself and think about what is the true self-esteem. Would my inferiority disappear if I can look prettier, make more money, or have a better car? To be truly great would be to be complete on my own without any added external factors.

To overcome inferiority means to escape from the fundamental hunger we have in mind, the desire to become complete.💯

We weren’t born complete, but the inferiority can give us an opportunity to return to being complete. If you are asking this question, ‘How do I overcome my inferiority complex?’. It means you are already taking the first step toward making use of this opportunity to free yourself from inferiority and find true self.

And here’s a short video clip about finding true self.