Self-love deficit

There is a major self-love deficit in the world today.  I’m not talking about narcissism.  I’m talking about loving and accepting our own self as we truly are.  As imperfect human beings.  With our flaws, shortcomings and limitations.  The highly competitive society that we have created is breaking us.  The so-called losers are falling short.  Society indirectly sending them the message that they are less than.  The so-called winners aren’t really winning either.  They never really feel full because they still always have room for improvement.  Sitting on the top echelon, they live in fear of being taken down.  They have tasted victory and understand its fickleness.  We have been sold the idea that competition is the best way to push progression.  But have we reached a level where the price has simply become too expensive?  Mental health issues have increased significantly over the past decade.  Yet, we keep increasing expectations.  A dog eat dog mentality brings out the worse in people as they desperately try to build themselves back up.  It cultivates greed, hatred and fear.  And greedy, hateful and afraid people aren’t very kind, compassionate or generous.  I mean, competition is good on a fundamental level.  It‘s a survival instinct.  It‘s the foundation behind evolution and natural selection.  Utilitarian in the animal kingdom, but do we really need to cultivate it as much as we do in our human societies?  If what we truly want from life is to be happy, is winning more the answer?  We can build our minds and bodies to perform at an elite level, but if we neglect to also build what’s in our hearts we’ll always feel a certain inner void.  Lost in chasing higher numbers, we lose our emotional selves.  We will never be able to eliminate competition completely but has our spirit become overly competitive?  There are many things that I don’t know.  But I’m pretty sure that more competitive ambition isn’t the way to fill this self-love deficit.