The Poison Tree! (Apology to William Blake)

Beware, the green-eyed monster!! It is much more poisonous than the venomous cobra or the predatory lion!! It destroys relationships, cracks friendships and in simple words, plays havoc with our lives. It is also one of the Cardinal sins, though more fatal than greed.
Envy and jealousy, though synonyms, are slightly different in meaning. Envy is the desire for something that someone else has, or a feeling of ill will over another person's advantages in general. Jealousy is a suspicion that what should have rightfully belonged to you, is another person’s now.
I will be frank, now. A very little amount of jealousy is healthy and perhaps even welcome for self-improvement. That motivates us to achieve our goal, if the rivalry is healthy. We need that to outshine our competitors. But if it becomes an all-consuming passion, envy creeps in! It is the channel of our negative thoughts and assumes alarming proportions in the blink of an eye!
Our thought process becomes sick, causing us to lose our peace of mind, over time. At one stage, to our own shock, we secretly rejoice over others’ pains than gains. Unknowingly, our ego gets bloated resulting in decreasing peace of mind.
At this stage, a little rational thinking will help us from sinking. If God has deprived us of something, He must have endowed us with something else. How can He discriminate among His own children? We have to develop the attitude of improving whatever God has gifted us wih instead of comparing ourselves with others. It is natural for one to feel that grass is greener on the other side. It is never so in life.
For our own improvement, we must occupy ourselves constructively. Jealousy breeds when our focus is on our shortcomings. If we take an objective perspective on the situation, we will realize where our thinking has erred. Very often it is a reflection of our own insecure feelings rather than the actions of others. We must build up self confidence and not allow it to damage relationships.
We must remember, we are unique and comparison with others is not worth it. Identifying our talents and making the best use of them helps us move forward. It is in our hands, not to make jealousy a disease but a healthy condition.
I love best the quote;
Jealousy is the tribute which mediocrity pays to a genius!

Love,
Chithra.

 

Shan, thanks for 'opening' my FB....
account! However much we deny accepting it, these are part and parcel of our basic(base as well) emotions!
As I wrote in one of my recent blogs, we have to consciously develop the habit of overcoming it!
Love,
Chithra.

 

Yes, Meenu!.....
A tinge of jealousy of one or other, is a part and parcel ofmost of us. We will deny it on 'face value', but if we analyse ourselves deeply, we cannot but accept it!
Let us console ourselves thus - we are, after all, human!
Thanks & love,
Chithra.

 

Lali, very often it....
kills us! Raising our self-esteem is perhaps one way to come out of it??
Love,
Chithra.

 

that though I write on these topics, I am also very much one among
folks like me -in your words!!
I have a loooooooooooong way to go, K!
Thanks & love,
Chithra.