Life demands changes in emotion. There will be moments when you can choose how you react to a situation, and then there are times when a situation will cause an involuntary, uncontrollable reaction. As a result, our lives are an ebb and flow of different emotions. Sometimes we're up, and sometimes we're down.

That's completely normal, so you may be wondering why I have gathered you all here today.

The problem arises when we have our highest highs and our lowest lows. When you have this moment in life in which you are happier than you've ever been, it's tempting to try to live the rest of our lives out in this state. Who wouldn't want to be super happy all the time?

But, eventually, we find ourselves at a low point, when nothing seems to be going your way and you don't think you can pick yourself back up from it. This can be a personally, professionally, academically, and/or mentally challenging time.

But, like most things in life, everything reaches its stable state again. You'll come down from your bliss and return to everyday life. There are many ways homeostasis is beneficial in our lives. This is not one of them.

The reason is we are creatures of comparison. We compare ourselves to other people, we compare things before we buy one, and we compare our abilities to social expectations. In this constant state of seeking comparisons, we are tempted to compare our current mindset with past emotions.

This is extremely toxic.

There is nothing wrong with reflecting on a good or bad time in your life, and basking in the nice memory or learning from a terrible experience. The capability to change based on previous experience is how we learn and is essential for personal progress. What is an issue is when you think less of your current situation because of past experiences – learn from them, don't live in them. Because comparisons between present and past emotions can lead to mislead conclusions.

For example, the transition between high school and college is a very difficult time. Students that are used to getting easy As in high school may come to college and receive their first C. Learning from the experience is reflecting on what actions did and did not work while studying, note-taking, or applying the information. This type of self-reflection is important.

What's toxic is comparing the feeling of being on top of the world in high school to the feeling of failure in college. Assuming, for this scenario, that the student feels that a C is a personal failure. Such a stark difference in emotion – a high high compared to a low low – may result in the student thinking differently about their self-worth or capabilities.

A similar example can be made with relationships. If you compare your entire relationship to how it felt in the first few weeks, it's going to seem like you have lost the spark for your significant other. The fact is that the so-called "honeymoon phase" only lasts for a short amount of time. After that, life levels out. It doesn't mean you have fallen out of love, it could just mean you are comfortable with the person.

So it's important to keep moving forward. In both of those situations, the simple truths of doing poorly on a test or settling down with a loved one were made to seem like Earth-shattering events because they were compared to other times in one's life. But things change for the worst sometimes, just as they will change for the better.

Once things change, don't compare them to your previous experiences. There's no point in comparing apples to oranges, so don't.