loveromance-thegreeneyedmonster-jealousy

The Green Eyed Monster - Jealousy

When the Green Eyed Monster appears you can guarantee misery will be close behind. That’s because jealousy is a nasty beast. You’ll find it will eat you up, give you a good chew and then spit you out - leaving you feeling even more sorry for yourself than you did before. Unfortunately, it often creeps up without you knowing. At first you might be happy your best mate has got a gorgeous new boyfriend (you may even wish your life was just as loved-up). But it’s easy for jealousy to start turning these positive thoughts sour - such as secretly hoping they’ll split up. If you start to feel jealous, the first thing you need to know is,

How to cope with jealousy? Be honest with yourself about the object of your jealousy. How much do you really want it? Would it really make you happy? Once you’ve cleared your head you can stop looking sideways and take steps to move your life forward. First, stop sizing yourself up against your schoolmates - the chances are they have as many hang-ups as you do. Be confident in who you are and be brave enough to work out what you want, and then go get it. If you dream of being in the limelight and becoming the star of the school play, don’t resent the girl with the lead role - instead audition like crazy till you get what you want. Or focus on something else that excites you. Above all, don’t let jealousy beat you-up; celebrate the things that make you special and stop selling yourself short. It’s a good way to start learning how to love yourself. Nobody’s perfect - but hey, you’re not far off!

Why am I jealous? Jealousy is very complex because it involves such a wide range of emotions, thoughts and behaviours. We've all experienced jealousy at some time in our lives, although the reasons why each of us gets jealous and the emotions we feel may differ. You need to work out why you’re feeling the green-eyed emotion. If you feel a pang of jealousy occasionally don’t feel too bad, everyone feels it sometimes. We’re rarely satisfied with what we’ve got and sometimes feeling a bit jealous makes us work harder to get the things we want. However, if reality is out the window and you’re insanely jealous about everything and everyone, the problem is more complex. You’ll notice that you only get envious of things you WANT. Say for example if your friend gets better exam grades than you, you’ll get envious. So pay attention to what you're envious of. If it's a secret dream of yours, build up the courage to go after it yourself.