You know that feeling you have when a friend you’ve known all your life gets a job before you do? When your closest paramours return from far-off lands and regale you with tales of revelry and wonder, while you listen agape? When you see near and dear get ahead in life while you’re still trying to find your feet? However hard you might try to suppress it, the feeling boils underneath the surface, festers in our gut and slowly consumes you from the inside – welcome, to the world of jealousy.
Don’t be ashamed, being jealous
is a natural reaction – everyone has experienced it in their lives at some
point or the other. Humans are a complicated species and nobody is immune to
the feelings of insecurity, anxiety and fear. More than anything else, the
greatest human fear of all is the fear of exclusion – and it can drive us to
act in ways that we later regret.
Recently, one of my friends
returned from a student foreign exchange program from Europe – that holy grail
of tourist destinations. He had the unique opportunity to visit a plethora of
exotic locales across a number of countries as a part of his semester abroad,
including all of the “must-see” places – the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Swiss
Alps & the Leaning Tower of Pisa – among others. His tales filled me with
wonder and admiration relegating me to rue what could have been. But more
significantly, that green-eyed monster that is synonymous with human nature
reared its ugly head again – I was left feeling a tad jealous.
How can you fight this feeling?
Well, you don’t – it’s no crime after all. To deny one’s natural feelings or
emotion is to deny the essence of being human itself. No, denial is not the
answer – rather, acceptance and recognition of the sensation is the first step
to dealing with it. Understanding the reasons behind your reaction is the next
step – introspection is what separates men from lesser evolved forms of
life. And with self-reflection, comes wisdom. More often than not, you will
find your feelings of envy melting away.
