ENVY.…how do we combat it?

5 Feb
2010


Four lit­tle let­ters that can be harm­less or they can be hurt­ful.

According to dic​tio​nary​.com:

Envy denotes a long­ing to pos­sess some­thing awarded to or achieved by another: for exam­ple to feel envy when a friend inher­its a for­tune.

We all envy some­one or some­thing. Whether it be another per­son, a sit­u­a­tion or even a future prospect. While I enjoy my life I per­son­ally have a list of things that I envy. Outwardly I may not express it, but inside it’s there. Here are a cou­ple exam­ples:

1. Wedding Announcements. No mat­ter who is get­ting mar­ried as a sin­gle per­son I tend to envy it.
2.The oblig­a­tory hubby/​baby belly pic­tures. I envy those largely because I spent a good major­ity of my preg­nan­cies in shock and way too huge to take pic­tures like these.
3.When peo­ple get brand new cars as gifts. That’s because I can more relate to this:

It is human nature to be envi­ous. No mat­ter what our sit­u­a­tion or how much bet­ter we may have it com­pared to oth­ers the grass always seems to be greener in some­one else’s pas­ture. But, we don’t want envy to dom­i­nate us or become a form of bit­ter jeal­ousy. When that hap­pens it can be very destruc­tive. Something I work on daily is con­tent­ment. Being con­tent with who I am and what I have.

What are some things you envy? How do you com­bat these neg­a­tive feel­ings?

Thanks for read­ing,

Literary Nobody

Toya Bryant has written 193 article(s) for this site

Toya Bryant aka Literary Nobody is a Freelance Writer/Blogger who promotes positive thinking and actions within the community and the family. She also writes about the positives and negatives of technology, internet security and social media.

  • Terez

    Great post Toya! I admit that I’ve had my fair share of bouts with the “green-​eyed” mon­ster in my life. However, as I’ve grown older, I’m learn­ing the impor­tance of just being thank­ful for the bless­ings I have. By express­ing grat­i­tude, I’ve found it’s the best way for me to beat down old green eyes when he rears his ugly head.Keep up the great work Toya. All the best to you!

  • Terez

    Great post Toya!

    I admit that I’ve had my fair share of bouts with the “green-​eyed” mon­ster in my life. However, as I’ve grown older, I’m learn­ing the impor­tance of just being thank­ful for the bless­ings I have.

    By express­ing grat­i­tude, I’ve found it’s the best way for me to beat down old green eyes when he rears his ugly head.

    Keep up the great work Toya. All the best to you!

  • Literary Nobody

    Great com­ment Terez…thank you! Also, great advice. When you express grat­i­tude and also appre­ci­a­tion it doesn’t leave a lot of room for neg­a­tive feel­ings like envy. It’s def­i­nitely true that as we get older we do see that every­thing isn’t always as it appears. Some of the things we may envy may be some­thing that we may be grate­ful later that we didn’t have.You keep up the great work too! :)

  • Literary Nobody

    Great com­ment Terez…thank you! Also, great advice. When you express grat­i­tude and also appre­ci­a­tion it doesn’t leave a lot of room for neg­a­tive feel­ings like envy. It’s def­i­nitely true that as we get older we do see that every­thing isn’t always as it appears. Some of the things we may envy may be some­thing that we may be grate­ful later that we didn’t have.

    You keep up the great work too! :)



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