Jealousy and envy are not the same things, despite the fact that most people confuse them. Jealousy is the fear of losing what you already have. When your employer begins giving your new coworker bigger duties, you may get envious and fear that your own career may be jeopardized.
Envy is a two-way street: I want what you have, and you want what I have. Jealousy is a three-person triangle: I desire the attention you get from others, and you have it. Envy is when you wish you had your colleague’s workplace. Jealousy occurs when you feel threatened by your boss’s admiration for one of your coworkers’ efforts. These jealousy and envy quotes may help you to realize the difference more clearly.
Ona cerebral level, comprehending jealousy and envy
Envy and jealousy are tough emotions to understand. We might have negative thoughts toward a friend who gets our ideal job, for example and say it’s because that person is boastful, only to understand later that our feelings are jealousy.
What causes sentiments of envy and jealousy, according to neurologist Ilene Ruhoy, M.D., Ph.D., is how our brains are structured.
She continues, “It all relies on how the amygdala communicates with parts of our brain that form our values and motivations.” “We know more about where sorrow, anger, and fear come from in the brain, but jealously and envy are more complicated in that the interaction of biochemistry, anatomy and the environment in which we grow may determine how much jealousy or envy we experience.”
How to cope with enmity and jealousy?
According to Gretchen Rubin, a happiness expert, paying careful attention to sentiments of jealousy might help you figure out exactly what you want out of life.
She says in Business Insider, “Negative emotions play a very vital part in a happy existence because they signal us that something has to change.” “When we feel envious of someone, it means that they have something that we wish we had. That’s helpful to know. When I was contemplating transferring from law to writing, I discovered that although I was somewhat interested in reading about individuals who had successful legal jobs in my college magazine, I was sick with jealousy when I read about people who had successful writing careers. That was a crucial hint.”
The greatest thing you can do with sentiments of jealousy and envy, according to Theodore, is to utilize them as motivation.
“It’s natural for individuals to feel envious and jealous at times,” she explains. “However, you may utilize them as incentive. Seeing a buddy get their ideal job can be all the motivation you need to get started on your own job hunt. Feeling frightened by a new rock star coworker may encourage you to seek out additional ways to stand out at work.”
Why does it matter?
In a relationship and in life, it’s critical to understand how to cope with jealousy. It may be harmful to your emotional and physical health if you can’t find a method to transform your sentiments of jealousy and envy into drive. “If we constantly compare ourselves to others without pushing ourselves to attain our own objectives, both envy and jealousy may lead to emotions of melancholy,” explains Theodore.
Investing in a lovely gratitude diary or just focusing on what you’re thankful for might be beneficial. The health advantages of appreciation are many, in addition to helping to alleviate emotions of jealousy and envy. While striving for more is crucial for personal development, being grateful for what you already have is also important.
How to prevent being harmed by envy and jealousy?
Envy and jealousy are related feelings, but they are distinct emotions. Both are terrible emotions that may make you unhappy and harm your relationships.
Envy is a feeling of hatred against someone else because of their wealth or success. When you are envious, you idealize. You’re not only interested in what they have; you’re also interested in their status.
When a third party threatens a relationship, jealousy arises because you are terrified of losing someone you care about in the hands of others.
Envy and jealousy are normal tendencies that we must suppress. You may not be able to control your emotions, but you can control how you react to them. Both emotions conceal other feelings that have the potential to be fatal. They conceal our uncertainty, guilt, or need to acquire; they feed our inner critic, making us feel unworthy.
Jealousy is a reaction to the prospect of losing something or someone, whereas envy is a reaction to the absence of something.
The oldest toxin on the planet
The primal fight-or-flight reaction is at the root of both jealousy and envy. When you sense that you are being attacked, your brain sends out a warning signal.
Our forefathers lived in constant fear of incurring the gods’ wrath via their hubris or good fortune.
Most modern confrontations, both professional and personal, are still fueled by envy and jealousy.
Envy motivates people to commit self-sabotage, which leads to wars and other conflicts. As Frank J. Ninivaggi argues in Envy Theories, it usually becomes a social phenomenon that leads to hostility and violence on others.
Our system promotes everyone’s equality, which gives us a false feeling of fairness. Envy stems from the belief that we are entitled to our fair share of goods, which is a strange dichotomy.
Life isn’t always kind. People with better abilities, health, wealth, or reputation than you will always exist. Entitlement doesn’t help; believing that you are entitled to something better causes you to focus on the result rather than the work.
Jealousy stems from the fear of failure, whereas envy stems from real ‘failure.’
To be able to let go of these two unpleasant emotions, we must first comprehend their origins. Stop thinking of yourself as a failure.
In life, we make our own poison
The mother of all poisons is ignorance. It is the assumption that things are set in stone and cannot be changed. We become caught in the current situation when we see someone performing better than us, rather than focusing on how we can develop.
That is why comparisons are misleading: there will always be people who are better or worse than us. When we compare things, we regard them as being static. Rather than looking inside, we gaze outside (at what others have) (what we can change).
We make our own poison, which we then consume
Ignorance clings to people, things, and feelings. It’s the want to maintain our idealized status. Rather than allowing things to evolve, we strive to control them.
Wisdom is the cure to ignorance, and self-awareness may help you overcome negative emotions.
Ignorance is the source of hatred. The world, we believe, revolves around us. Instead of perceiving our interconnectedness with everything and everyone else, we desire to stand out in the cosmos. When we get disconnected from our society, we begin to regard everyone as a rival or an adversary. Jealousy and envy are only protective mechanisms.
Greed isn’t only a desire for more; it’s also the belief that accumulating more things would offer personal satisfaction. Delusion, unfortunately, produces a vicious circle. It not only irritates us, but it also makes us want more. Greed is also motivated by a need to maintain your position since you feel that things determine who you are.
Evy and jealousy are fueled by attachment. You cling to goods or relationships you don’t have because you want to feel more powerful and in control.
Envy is directed against people to whom we are compared, such as coworkers, colleagues, relatives, or neighbors.
Social media hasn’t just increased the number of ‘beggars’ you may compare yourself to; it’s also a catalyst for jealousy to spread like wildfire. Envy and pointless comparisons are encouraged by a picture-perfect culture, which does us no good.