Jealousy is mental cancer

Jealousy. I have touched on this topic before but feel an unsettling urge to dwell on it a little deeper. Recently, I have been jealous of someone at school, for reasons we can talk about later, but the point is: it turned me into a green-eyed monster!

I despise this feeling. Every bit of it. But I can’t help but envy her. As I analyze this emotion, there is one thing that becomes clear…

We live in the age of envy. Human beings have always felt what Aristotle defined in the fourth century BC as pain at the sight of another’s good fortune, stirred by “those who have what we ought to have”. It is true, I feel innately uncomfortable about this girl’s great accomplishments even though I don’t want to feel this way one bit.

However, I recently came across the Growth Mindset. When we have a growth mindset, we look at the success of others and ask: what would it take for me to attain something similar? How am I going to be able to achieve this too? What would I have to do or learn? We are enabled to think about what we truly want. As a result, we can actually end up using jealousy as a resource, and can always make a plan to get there. This person’s accomplishments have reminded me of the fact that every person is on their own path of growth and success, and made me look a little deeper into constructing my own aims and goals. I may not be a person who gets things right the first time. But over time, I know I try hard to get there.

While I don’t think there is an instant cure for jealousy, I do think we can accept that this disruptive emotion is normal. When we accept, jealousy can uncover areas of our lives that need attention and improvement. Lastly, we may not have everything we want in life. Most of us don’t. But we probably have at least some of what we want, and that should never be disparaged. It is our differences that make us unique after all!

– SaaniaSparkle 🧚🏻‍♀️