A lot of things can happen when your friends come to you with good news, including the scary mix of good feelings and the bad. You know, those that make you want to reach into your heart and stop them from growing.
As far as feelings go, jealousy and envy towards your friends are one of the worst feelings ever. It can also make you keep your distance from them as you try to find out why you feel like that, especially when you have their best interests at heart.
How terrible is it to compare yourself to your friend, especially when you are sure that you have their best interests at heart. There can be many reasons for your jealousy and all of them start with you.
So, to tackle the origin of these feelings, use these five tips to tackle your feelings and jealousy and build better relationships with your friends.
1. Be kind to yourself
Be kind to yourself when you feel such negative emotions. Acknowledge the emotions that you feel – the jealousy, envy and insecure feelings that pass through you.
After you identify these emotions, be gentle with yourself as you wade through these emotions. You are only human, after all.
2. Use your envy for healthy competition
Envy does not necessarily have to convert to bad things for your relationship, thus ruining it. You can turn this around, and instead of focusing on the negative emotions, use it to start a little healthy competition.
This will make you feel active and will even make you feel better about yourself.
3. Create some boundaries
You cannot help what you can’t cope with. Although you should absolutely work on your problems, you should also set some boundaries if you know that you can’t handle the situation.
Set some healthy boundaries and stay away from topics that reminds you of things you don’t want to feel or talk about. This is not very healthy though and can tear you apart from your friend in the long run.
4. Shift your perspective
During situations like this, it can be helpful to shift your perspective and look at life through a different lens. Consider the fact that your friend may also be jealous of some things that you have achieved as well. We all have our highs and lows.
5. Deal with your feelings in a healthy way
After it has all been said and done, you do need to deal with your feelings in a healthy way. Seek therapy and understand the origins of your negative feelings.
Doing this will help you become a better, more supportive friend. If it helps, you can also consider speaking to your friend about these feelings as well.
There is no need to beat yourself up over negative emotions you may be feeling towards a friend; for every problem, there is a solution.
If you feel jealous or envious about your friends’ successes, there is no need to beat yourself up over it. Use the tips above to get over it and start building more fruitful and less toxic relationships with your friends.
We want to hear from you: how do you deal with feelings of jealousy and envy towards your friends? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below and don’t forget to share this article.
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