Dealing With Jealousy

Jealousy (that feeling of inadequacy that we get, when we perceive that someone is either better than we are or that they have something that we would like to have, but don't possess at that moment) is an emotion that affects all of us from time to time...some, more-so than others.

The root of jealousy lies with how we perceive ourselves.

If we are constantly comparing ourselves with others, then those feelings of jealousy will arise constantly and will eventually give us a skewed perception of ourselves, as we constantly try to analyze ourselves from other person's viewpoints.

So, how then do we deal with jealousy?

• Understand that God has created us with a unique personality and gifted us with unique talents. That unique personality is ours, given by God for us to develop and to ensure that it contributes to our own welfare as well as that of those around us. Our talents,too, are given by God, for us to develop and to use to directly uplift those around us.

  Until we seek to develop our talents to their fullest potential and learn how to appreciate ourselves, for who we are, faults and all, and work on those faults, then we will always feel inadequate.

• Realize that God has placed us in unique situations in order to help others and that we are very important to Him.

• Understand and accept that there will always be someone who is smarter, more good-looking, richer and more knowledgeable than we are and conversely, that there will always be someone who is less smart, less good-looking, poorer, less knowledgeable than we are, and live with it! This doesn't mean that we should settle for mediocrity. We should try to be the best that we can be.

  So, instead of feeling jealous of those who have attained much more than we have, we should seek to find out how they attained success, and if obtained it ethically and morally, should try to learn from them!

• We should also try to cultivate the attributes in others that we are jealous over, in ourselves.

  When we are so busy with self-improvement, we will have less time to be bothered/stressed over those whom we could potentially be jealous over.

• Lastly, we should not be afraid to look inward and assess ourselves in terms of where we need to be in order to accomplish the goals we've set for ourselves. To quickly uproot jealousy, we have to keep a constant check on ourselves,so that when we start to feel inadequate,we ensure that we quickly dispel these feelings by doing a good reality check of our present situation.

Hope this helps!

Your comments, are welcomed!