Clarity On Fire

You know how it goes … you see someone’s incredible vacation photos on social media, while you watch the rain pour down outside your tiny office window (or, worse, as you stare at the windowless grey walls of your cube). Or you hear about an old friend who just got an amazing promotion at a company you’d kill to work at. Or your coworker gushes about how sweet her husband was for surprising her with concert tickets for their one-year anniversary, while you haven’t even been on a date in months. The envy starts to creep in, and you’re left feeling annoyed, resentful, deflated, or just plain sad. The worst part of jealousy is the self-judgment and shame that often comes along with it. Many of my clients, after embarrassedly sharing a situation where they felt envious, will say things like, “I have to plaster on a smile and fake excitement, even though I feel like the jealousy is strangling me. What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I just be happy for that person??” I’m guilty of this, too — both feeling jealous and