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 judging myself for it. Thankfully, in the past few years I’ve completely reframed how I feel about jealousy and I stopped feeling guilty and ashamed of it.

In my first podcast edition of our blog, I’m (Kristen) talking about how I now actually LOVE when I get jealous because I believe it’s one of the very best tools for figuring out what you’re passionate about, making authentic decisions, and getting over analysis paralysis.

This blog was originally published in December of 2016, but I brought it back for our podcast launch because it’s something I remind myself and my clients of often, so I figured you might benefit from the same reminder.

FREE WORKSHOP ON 4/27/18

If you enjoy any of our current episodes and decide to subscribe, rate, and review before Tuesday, April 24, then we’d love to invite you to a FREE online workshop and Q&A session we’re doing about Passion Profiles on Friday, April 27 at 1pm Eastern.

To get access, take a screenshot of your review and email it to us at contact@clarityonfire.com. We’ll send you a link to register for the workshop! There WILL be a replay for those of you who register but can’t make it live.

LINKS

Take the Passion Profile Quiz: www.clarityonfire.com/quiz

Send us screenshots of your review at: contact@clarityonfire.com

Read the written version of this blog and leave comments here:  http://clarityonfire.com/why-i-love-jealousy

Submit a question for the May episode of Dear Krachel (our monthly advice column): http://clarityonfire.com/podcast-questions