Jealousy is a seed that we all, unfortunately, have inside of us. None of us are above feeling envious of someone else at times.

Poison Envy

Whether it is the nice car that someone else has, the better body, or seeing your significant other offer attention to someone else, there is something that will cause all of us to feel that poison begin to creep through our veins.

There is nothing wrong with wanting things that you don’t have, but it is interesting that it is so difficult for each of us to admit that it makes us feel badly about ourselves that we do not have them. Instead of admitting that we are feeling insecure about something, that liquid envy tends to turn us into angry, and often mean, versions of ourselves. The longer that we allow that jealousy to sit in our veins, the worse this condition becomes.

When More is Less

Why does envy of another person come with such anxious and forceful emotions attached? I wish that I had the answer to that question. What I do know is that nothing good comes from letting the desire to have more things consume us. It makes us treat the people in our lives like they are disposable as soon as an opportunity for a better life comes along.

The need to have more and more can also leave us feeling a lack of satisfaction once we do gain what we desire, because by that time we will probably have set our eyes on something else that we want more. There are many times that I can recall using jealousy as an excuse to cut someone else down, “Those girls are much more beautiful than I am, but they are probably really high-maintenance”.  It’s a shame that the good things that other people have, especially beauty, causes us to think such hurtful thoughts about them.

Being Part of Something Better

Envying someone will not give you what they have.

In fact, it only detracts from what you already do have. Again, it is not a bad thing to want something. It is, however, a terrible thing to let it take over your life and push out the things, and the people, who matter the most. The fact that someone has something that you do not does not detract from you in any way. In fact, it has nothing to do with you!

Because I have been thinking about this topic a great deal lately, I have been trying to be more conscious of stopping those thoughts of jealously before they grow into full-blown envy.

I want to celebrate the things that make other people special or amazing instead of making it about me and what I do not have. I do not want my strengths or my talents to make someone think less of themselves, so I will no longer allow myself to feel that way either. This way of thinking could revolutionize how the world supports one another, and I want to be part of the crowd that is trying to make it happen.

See also:

Be here now: a guide to happiness
How to achieve your goals and live the life you want
How to achieve self-worth, even if you don’t know what it means

by Sarah