Exploring jealousy

This morning I woke up with the concept of jealousy in my mind. And I kept trying to dismiss it. Kept trying to push it back into the recesses of my brain. Because I felt this is the season to be joyful, happy, and full of love. Not a season for thoughts of jealousy, envy or fear.

But then I came across this wonderful quote from @Eckhart Tolle, “How do you let go of attachments to things? Don't even try. It's impossible. Attachment to things drops away by itself when you no longer seek to find yourself in them" (Oneness With All Life)” and I knew the Universe was asking me to explore this concept further. Asking me to ponder why we become jealous of other people? And why other people become jealous of us?

How can we be the best of friends one day then enemies the next? What causes jealousy? And the only reasons I can think of are attachments, expectations, fear and more importantly ego. I also realize that jealousy comes from a place of lack and insecurity. A place where the only way we feel good about what we don’t have is to be envious of anyone that has what we want. Rather than giving ourselves permission to go for what we want. Ask for what we want.

Jealousy is a very difficult topic to tackle because at some point in our lives we will experience jealousy directed at us or we will direct it at someone else. I don’t know about you but when I am envious of someone my whole insides feel horrible. My energy levels are sapped and I don’t feel good about myself or that person at all. Creating a downward spiral into darkness. 

So what I tend to do when I feel myself spiralling to that dark place, I go within and ask myself from what place of lack is this feeling coming from. What can I learn about these feelings? 

And when I do,  I realize there is no reason to be jealous of anyone once I let go of my expectations and attachment. When I remember there is more than enough abundance in this world for us all to share. When I understand that everyone and everything has a season. And when I accept that there is a time and place for everything. When I acknowledge there will always be someone who has more or less than I do. And the only person I can ever improve is myself. When I let go of trying to compare myself to anyone else because we are all experiencing lessons in our lives regardless of how much we have or whether we are living our dream lives.

I have also learned by expressing gratitude every day for everyone and everything that comes into my life whether good or bad, attachments disappear without me even trying. Because what I recognize is that I have more than enough in my life than I do not enough.

I have also come to understand I am human, imperfect and full of ego sometimes. Consequently, I will experience feelings of jealousy and when I do I am mirrored those feelings back so that I can learn to forgive myself and to forgive others.

Life is all about the lessons we learn. The people and possessions that come and go in our lives. Life is also about knowing when to stop searching, when to stop seeking answers to that which there are no answers. To have faith and trust in the Universe that we are where we are meant to be. And when we learn these lessons we learn there is no need to be jealous. No need to be envious. Because we are all here for a purpose and that purpose is to love and to be loved.