Healthy Jealousy with Mel Robbins

What is the first thing you think of when someone mentions jealousy? It has a negative feel to it doesn’t it. I thought that too, until recently when I heard Mel Robbins share her take on the cause of jealousy. 

“You can be in a space where you can be happy and you are thrilled for someone you love and care about and respect, because you’re watching them have their dreams come true, so you can feel all of that. And if you also feel jealous, what that means is that’s your unrealized dreams trying to get you to pay attention.  It’s not about hatred for the other person.  Envy is about hatred for the other person, because envy is when you think ‘well you didn’t work hard enough for that’.  Jealousy is basically your dreams saying ‘hey, that is something that you care about.”

The way Mel broke down the difference between jealousy and envy was brilliant. It’s important to strip each emotion and reveal its cause and deeper meaning. Jealousy is fueled by introspection and problems within yourself, whereas envy resides in your resentment of others. So, jealousy is much healthier than envy because you can do something about it! Next time you start feeling jealous, think about how that emotion relates to your own insecurities.