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I believe I am learning from it right now. Earlier this year I felt envy and a bit of jealously from one of my collaborators, ever since I have been slowly removing their transferred energies from my aura. I can learn from it by accepting that others will attempt to do so however I have also worked on protecting my energy/ restoring it with Reiki and have a self health plan for myself when I get back to my business :). I truly believe a lot of learning and growing comes from acceptance, accepting is not tolerating nor is it excusing it however it is acknowledging it respectfully.
Envy teaches me both good & bad, the good being to work hard to get to a goal because it is possible but at the same time it makes u think that being envious of someones beauty only takes away from yours, you see i could be envious of one girl while she’s envious of me and instead of embracing our beauty we have hatred/envy toward another. I just feel you can allow your light to shine through rather than comparing and wanting what someone has and reflect of what you have.Lastly if you feel envious of someone instead of holding it in let that person know . for example if you love someones outfit and really want it complement them so not only are you cheering up them you are also making urself feel better!!
When I’m in the throes of it, it can’t teach me anything. I’m unreachable. When I’m not in it, other forces, such as those that teach gratefulness, can equip me to identify and avoid the soul-swallowing force it is.
I feel envy often occurs for me when people seemingly have things that I feel are not possible for me but that I want … and it’s a powerful tool to determine why I want those things, what I really want and how to develop towards gaining more of those things.
Like a huge motivator for me is I want a peaceful life, sometimes I’ll see people and feel envy as they seemingly have peace … so it’s a bell saying, this is what you want, go after that thing, figure out how to build the mental resources, emotional resources, the material resources, whatever it is to get to having that thing you see in others you envy. I try to break it down into its component parts, to create a kind of anatomy of what it is that I envy then work to build those things in my life.
That might mean reading some self help books, that might be adjusting my diet, might mean taking relaxing baths, that might mean a whole lot of things but I think envy feeds upon a sense of disempowerment, that you see something and feel it isn’t within your power to have that thing ever and so that’s when envy occurs. But it may be a completely faulty understanding of the situation. So I think the proper response is to understand the situation and aim for as much possible for oneself.
When I’m envious which is almost the same as being jealous I noticed the feeling with awareness. And when I’m aware that I am jealous or envious I am able to let go and be happy for the person who has some thing that I perhaps perceive as not having.
In other words by being aware of feelings that are perhaps negative I am able to notice the feeling recognize it, transform it, and let go.
There’s always a bigger fish, as Obi-Wan would say. Comparisons lead to envy, envy leads to…. The envy reveals the falsity that bigger is better. I sometimes realise this, sometimes not. Envy’s an old friend I’ve learnt to live with.
Envy can teach me about what to let go of, i.e. comparing or the feeling of sadness because of not having …. which I feel was much more prominent than envy and to be happy and grateful about the individual gifts given to and by others while giving mine also for the sake and well being of all. I feel that gratitude dissolves envy and opens the door to express joy and possible talents as well as just to be who we are, which in itself is a huge gift to others. Envy can teach me to transform the experience of scarcity into fullness.
Envy can teach me how to be a person who is committed to love and justice. I envy people like Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Ghandi, Jesus of Nazareth, Oscar Romero, and others, who were able to simultaneously fight for justice and love while also loving and forgiving their enemies at the same time. I can learn from my envy by imitating these amazing figures that made a difference in the world.
Envy can teach me what I am longing for, missing, needing. I can learn to befriend envy, name what I long for, Miss, need in the other, and be open to how that may manifest on my own path.
As others have mentioned, it can open me to gratefulness for the many gifts in my life, and an invitation to realize that everyone I meet suffers. No one ‘gets out alive’… so it leads to gratefulness and making the very best of the moments and gifts of each day.
I try to remember to those who have been given much , much will be required. Helps me to focus on doing the best I can with whatever talents, gifts, resources I have been given. Even though that may seem like a little it keeps me plenty busy.
I try to trust that I have what I can handle and be happy for those who have what they have. Makes the world more interesting.
It teaches me that I am collapsed in my ego or comparing mind and I need to train more to develop sympathetic joy for others and recognize expressions of “basic goodness” or “buddha nature” in others.
Envy teaches me to not compare myself to others. People may have more things or appear to be more successful but those things do not mean that they are necessarily happy. Wanting more in life can mean not being satisfied with what one has and can create heartache, anxiety, self pity and suffering. I can learn to accept and be content and be happy and grateful
Lately I have been working with those feelings that I have always considered negative.
Envy, loss of patience, anger.
I try to learn something. If they get up, there must be a reason.
And I always find it, even if it’s not easy, or the solution isn’t as fast as I would like.
Envy arises when I crave what I lack.
In most cases I have had to deal with my past, my childhood, my lack of courage.
Sometimes I envy the beauty, the vigorous body of young people. Obviously I can’t find an objective conclusion to this challenge, but I can find a wise and also nice way to love who I am, and specifically, to take part in my younger and younger company with my skills.
If envy creeps up, I know I have lost my center. And I make effort to correct myself because I know we all have our own path and, as was mentioned, we don’t always know what others are dealing with in their own minds or their own homes. I’m grateful not to feel a whole lot of envy or jealousy these days. When I came to truly know and love myself, those sorts of feelings fell away.
I don’t seem to have a lot of envy. Twinges now and then. Someone taught me years ago, “Never envy anyone, if you were to have what they have, you’d inherit their problems too!” They also taught me me to be happy for them, and by so doing you become happy too. Vicarious joy. Thinking about it, I’m glad those attitudes were given to me when I was a teenager. They’ve served me well.
I like that, Dusty Su. I don’t have much envy either, but I have a lot. Things and people come in packages. It’s good to remember that; one of my friends divorced because she wanted a better husband. But in the end it was important to her. to have a tall husband, so she and he are back together as ‘boyfriend and girlfriend.’
There are no longer ‘things and stuff’ in my life to which I am attached. These were either given or and taken over the past two decades. Losing everything has blessed me with an abundance of freedom and gratitude. I have not known envy for many, many years. I pray I never know it again. Blessed be…
Envy can teach me what I think is important. It is not often the thing that we crave but the emotion or connection that we feel we will get once we have the item/scenario. When it shows up in my life – it tells me to pause and figure out what is really going on and what I am really missing in that moment.
Envy is my Compass as to having lost sight of gratitude for the many gifts I have been granted. Envy and jealousy are most often rooted in Pride like many other aspects of our concupiscence. Pride is driven by the ego I’m the evil one feeds on our ego to separate us from God I’m Grace. When Envy comes to mind I pray for Union with God.
Envy is not an emotion I relate to very much. I have been fortunate to know or meet in a casual way a number of uber-wealthy and some famous and powerful people. I know their lives are not better than mine or others… just a little different, but not a lot different. They have as many tragedies in their lives, as many worries, as many insecurities, as many health issues, as many family dramas. And I know when someone’s life seems wonderful all the way through, it is just a moment before I discover it is an illusion. Some of the happiest people I have known have had enormous hidden tragedies, handicaps, or problems. The difference that creates their happiness is their natural gratitude.
We can all have that gratitude.
Gratitude is the great equalizer.
Even our tragedies, losses, hardships, can bear miraculous gifts but we must look for those gifts and believe in them.
Blessings to all of you this morning. May you enjoy your day!
It teaches me about longing. I am with Howie: sometimes it comes as a surprise, not knowing that I wanted what someone else has. It’s one more breadcrumb I can follow to find my way back home. It’s also an opportunity to be compassionate with myself and take one small step forward.
When I realize that I have become envious of someone/something, that realization reminds me that I must work a bit harder at being more grateful for those things that I do enjoy. Gratefulness is a wonderful salve for even life’s sorest hurts and disappointments…
Thank you, Michele. I have found that statement to be true. At least for me.
Gratefulness has enabled me to cope with the losses of my beloved wife
of 53 years and my own failing health and vitality. Gratefulness keeps
the Spirit willing even as the Flesh weakens…
Thank you, Dusty Su. Gratefulness has been the not-so-secret ingredient
that has made life still worthwhile even after losing my beloved wife.
That and my many loving, caring friends. I am indeed blessed…
Envy is a kind of hunger. A craving. So it points to a certain lack. Something which is missing. My recognition in another is simply a clue, a trigger. In my experience it is mostly a surprise, as I didn’t even know to want whatever quality I see in another which I covet. Like a weathervane envy signals where to look within myself. For instance it would be futile if I felt envy for someone’s youth. Which at 65 is unattainable. And yet, when I investigate this desire I realize the qualities I am hungry for have nothing to do with age: vitality, rigor, enthusiasm and confidence are not unattainable even now.
I am truly envious of my contemporaries who have fully functioning backs, allowing them to move, bend, twist, lift, and walk without constant pain. While I am grateful for good hearth in every other way in my 71st year of life, and mobile in every other way also, I miss being able to sit, stand, and walk without constant back pain. I have no idea what, if anything, this kind of envy is teaching me.
However, when I walk into the Pain Management Clinic at Brigham and Woman’s Hospital in Boston for treatments, and see folks coping and living with far greater challenges than myself, it puts things into perspective for me immediately. The concept of “I complained because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet,” comes into focus for me as I head for home following my appointment.
That may be I don’t have what I want cuz I dint really want to put much effort into it… May be i dint even want it so bad…. I should rather appreciate others for all the love and work that goes into creating their world…
Envy teaches me that I have insecurities that need to be addressed.
To learn from it, I need to be conscious of when and how I feel this emotion, and then try to understand why I feel this way.
To go one step further, I can make an active effort to work on my insecurity.
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WHAT CAN ENVY TEACH ME? HOW CAN I LEARN FROM IT?
I believe I am learning from it right now. Earlier this year I felt envy and a bit of jealously from one of my collaborators, ever since I have been slowly removing their transferred energies from my aura. I can learn from it by accepting that others will attempt to do so however I have also worked on protecting my energy/ restoring it with Reiki and have a self health plan for myself when I get back to my business :). I truly believe a lot of learning and growing comes from acceptance, accepting is not tolerating nor is it excusing it however it is acknowledging it respectfully.
Envy teaches me both good & bad, the good being to work hard to get to a goal because it is possible but at the same time it makes u think that being envious of someones beauty only takes away from yours, you see i could be envious of one girl while she’s envious of me and instead of embracing our beauty we have hatred/envy toward another. I just feel you can allow your light to shine through rather than comparing and wanting what someone has and reflect of what you have.Lastly if you feel envious of someone instead of holding it in let that person know . for example if you love someones outfit and really want it complement them so not only are you cheering up them you are also making urself feel better!!
When I’m in the throes of it, it can’t teach me anything. I’m unreachable. When I’m not in it, other forces, such as those that teach gratefulness, can equip me to identify and avoid the soul-swallowing force it is.
I feel envy often occurs for me when people seemingly have things that I feel are not possible for me but that I want … and it’s a powerful tool to determine why I want those things, what I really want and how to develop towards gaining more of those things.
Like a huge motivator for me is I want a peaceful life, sometimes I’ll see people and feel envy as they seemingly have peace … so it’s a bell saying, this is what you want, go after that thing, figure out how to build the mental resources, emotional resources, the material resources, whatever it is to get to having that thing you see in others you envy. I try to break it down into its component parts, to create a kind of anatomy of what it is that I envy then work to build those things in my life.
That might mean reading some self help books, that might be adjusting my diet, might mean taking relaxing baths, that might mean a whole lot of things but I think envy feeds upon a sense of disempowerment, that you see something and feel it isn’t within your power to have that thing ever and so that’s when envy occurs. But it may be a completely faulty understanding of the situation. So I think the proper response is to understand the situation and aim for as much possible for oneself.
When I’m envious which is almost the same as being jealous I noticed the feeling with awareness. And when I’m aware that I am jealous or envious I am able to let go and be happy for the person who has some thing that I perhaps perceive as not having.
In other words by being aware of feelings that are perhaps negative I am able to notice the feeling recognize it, transform it, and let go.
There’s always a bigger fish, as Obi-Wan would say. Comparisons lead to envy, envy leads to…. The envy reveals the falsity that bigger is better. I sometimes realise this, sometimes not. Envy’s an old friend I’ve learnt to live with.
Envy can teach me about what to let go of, i.e. comparing or the feeling of sadness because of not having …. which I feel was much more prominent than envy and to be happy and grateful about the individual gifts given to and by others while giving mine also for the sake and well being of all. I feel that gratitude dissolves envy and opens the door to express joy and possible talents as well as just to be who we are, which in itself is a huge gift to others. Envy can teach me to transform the experience of scarcity into fullness.
Well put Ose. Gratitude dissolves envy
Envy can teach me how to be a person who is committed to love and justice. I envy people like Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Ghandi, Jesus of Nazareth, Oscar Romero, and others, who were able to simultaneously fight for justice and love while also loving and forgiving their enemies at the same time. I can learn from my envy by imitating these amazing figures that made a difference in the world.
My envy or theirs? I suppose there are lessons in both cases.
Awareness
Envy can teach me what I am longing for, missing, needing. I can learn to befriend envy, name what I long for, Miss, need in the other, and be open to how that may manifest on my own path.
As others have mentioned, it can open me to gratefulness for the many gifts in my life, and an invitation to realize that everyone I meet suffers. No one ‘gets out alive’… so it leads to gratefulness and making the very best of the moments and gifts of each day.
I try to remember to those who have been given much , much will be required. Helps me to focus on doing the best I can with whatever talents, gifts, resources I have been given. Even though that may seem like a little it keeps me plenty busy.
I try to trust that I have what I can handle and be happy for those who have what they have. Makes the world more interesting.
It can teach me where my own vulnerabilities are.
It teaches me that I am collapsed in my ego or comparing mind and I need to train more to develop sympathetic joy for others and recognize expressions of “basic goodness” or “buddha nature” in others.
Envy, with awareness, can turn into hope.
I love this Laura…thank you.
Envy teaches me to not compare myself to others. People may have more things or appear to be more successful but those things do not mean that they are necessarily happy. Wanting more in life can mean not being satisfied with what one has and can create heartache, anxiety, self pity and suffering. I can learn to accept and be content and be happy and grateful
Envy teaches me that the grass is not always greener on the other side and that I need to be thankful for what I already have.
Lately I have been working with those feelings that I have always considered negative.
Envy, loss of patience, anger.
I try to learn something. If they get up, there must be a reason.
And I always find it, even if it’s not easy, or the solution isn’t as fast as I would like.
Envy arises when I crave what I lack.
In most cases I have had to deal with my past, my childhood, my lack of courage.
Sometimes I envy the beauty, the vigorous body of young people. Obviously I can’t find an objective conclusion to this challenge, but I can find a wise and also nice way to love who I am, and specifically, to take part in my younger and younger company with my skills.
If envy creeps up, I know I have lost my center. And I make effort to correct myself because I know we all have our own path and, as was mentioned, we don’t always know what others are dealing with in their own minds or their own homes. I’m grateful not to feel a whole lot of envy or jealousy these days. When I came to truly know and love myself, those sorts of feelings fell away.
I don’t seem to have a lot of envy. Twinges now and then. Someone taught me years ago, “Never envy anyone, if you were to have what they have, you’d inherit their problems too!” They also taught me me to be happy for them, and by so doing you become happy too. Vicarious joy. Thinking about it, I’m glad those attitudes were given to me when I was a teenager. They’ve served me well.
I like that, Dusty Su. I don’t have much envy either, but I have a lot. Things and people come in packages. It’s good to remember that; one of my friends divorced because she wanted a better husband. But in the end it was important to her. to have a tall husband, so she and he are back together as ‘boyfriend and girlfriend.’
Interesting story, ha!
Yes, we are blessed and embattled in our own ways!
There are no longer ‘things and stuff’ in my life to which I am attached. These were either given or and taken over the past two decades. Losing everything has blessed me with an abundance of freedom and gratitude. I have not known envy for many, many years. I pray I never know it again. Blessed be…
Envy can teach me what I think is important. It is not often the thing that we crave but the emotion or connection that we feel we will get once we have the item/scenario. When it shows up in my life – it tells me to pause and figure out what is really going on and what I am really missing in that moment.
Envy is my Compass as to having lost sight of gratitude for the many gifts I have been granted. Envy and jealousy are most often rooted in Pride like many other aspects of our concupiscence. Pride is driven by the ego I’m the evil one feeds on our ego to separate us from God I’m Grace. When Envy comes to mind I pray for Union with God.
Envy is not an emotion I relate to very much. I have been fortunate to know or meet in a casual way a number of uber-wealthy and some famous and powerful people. I know their lives are not better than mine or others… just a little different, but not a lot different. They have as many tragedies in their lives, as many worries, as many insecurities, as many health issues, as many family dramas. And I know when someone’s life seems wonderful all the way through, it is just a moment before I discover it is an illusion. Some of the happiest people I have known have had enormous hidden tragedies, handicaps, or problems. The difference that creates their happiness is their natural gratitude.
We can all have that gratitude.
Gratitude is the great equalizer.
Even our tragedies, losses, hardships, can bear miraculous gifts but we must look for those gifts and believe in them.
Blessings to all of you this morning. May you enjoy your day!
It teaches me about longing. I am with Howie: sometimes it comes as a surprise, not knowing that I wanted what someone else has. It’s one more breadcrumb I can follow to find my way back home. It’s also an opportunity to be compassionate with myself and take one small step forward.
When I realize that I have become envious of someone/something, that realization reminds me that I must work a bit harder at being more grateful for those things that I do enjoy. Gratefulness is a wonderful salve for even life’s sorest hurts and disappointments…
“Gratefulness is a wonderful salve for even life’s sorest hurts and disappointments…” Love this!
Thank you, Michele. I have found that statement to be true. At least for me.
Gratefulness has enabled me to cope with the losses of my beloved wife
of 53 years and my own failing health and vitality. Gratefulness keeps
the Spirit willing even as the Flesh weakens…
It so is Samuel 😄
Thank you, Dusty Su. Gratefulness has been the not-so-secret ingredient
that has made life still worthwhile even after losing my beloved wife.
That and my many loving, caring friends. I am indeed blessed…
I often, mostly feel so grateful, that really doesn’t go hand in hand with envy.
I was always under the impression not to have envy. Envy and jealousy are two of the ‘bad’ emotions. One learns that nothing positive comes from them.
True.
Envy is a kind of hunger. A craving. So it points to a certain lack. Something which is missing. My recognition in another is simply a clue, a trigger. In my experience it is mostly a surprise, as I didn’t even know to want whatever quality I see in another which I covet. Like a weathervane envy signals where to look within myself. For instance it would be futile if I felt envy for someone’s youth. Which at 65 is unattainable. And yet, when I investigate this desire I realize the qualities I am hungry for have nothing to do with age: vitality, rigor, enthusiasm and confidence are not unattainable even now.
I am truly envious of my contemporaries who have fully functioning backs, allowing them to move, bend, twist, lift, and walk without constant pain. While I am grateful for good hearth in every other way in my 71st year of life, and mobile in every other way also, I miss being able to sit, stand, and walk without constant back pain. I have no idea what, if anything, this kind of envy is teaching me.
However, when I walk into the Pain Management Clinic at Brigham and Woman’s Hospital in Boston for treatments, and see folks coping and living with far greater challenges than myself, it puts things into perspective for me immediately. The concept of “I complained because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no feet,” comes into focus for me as I head for home following my appointment.
Chronic pain is so trying. I don’t envy much, but yes to be pain free again is something I’d want. I hope you find relief Kevin.
That may be I don’t have what I want cuz I dint really want to put much effort into it… May be i dint even want it so bad…. I should rather appreciate others for all the love and work that goes into creating their world…
That I ain’t nothin’ special. If I envious it means I wasn’t workin’ hard enuff.
Envy teaches me that I have insecurities that need to be addressed.
To learn from it, I need to be conscious of when and how I feel this emotion, and then try to understand why I feel this way.
To go one step further, I can make an active effort to work on my insecurity.