Colours are used in language to invoke a feeling or a state of wellbeing. Feeling in the pink is a positive and healthy way to be, whereas feeling blue means you are more than a little sad.
The colour green is an interesting one, because it is used to express both envy and/or jealousy, as well as feeling physically unwell. Green around the gills means you may just be about to hurl, and it also means that you are being eaten by wanting.
If you think about it, that is a kind of illness too.
In fact, envy is so destructive to the human soul it can literally drive a person mad or into deep despair.
It is also a waste of your time. Spending time worrying about what others have that you don’t is like literally handing them your diary and saying ‘go ahead and mark out any hours you think I don’t need’. It is also an energy suck. Imagine what you could do with every second you spend thinking about how lucky other people are. If you do that all your life, you may end up spending the same amount of time and energy you could have spent building a beach house.
The Desiderate says ‘If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself’ and that’s Ok. That kind of accepting and letting go is the only way to allow the toxicity of jealousy leave your body, and leave it, it must.
Not only does envy eat away at your internal organs, it causes wrinkles, bags under the eyes, and constipation. It also has been known to cause warts (OK, none of these claims may be true, but it certainly doesn’t help in any way). Constantly comparing yourself to others and finding THEM wanting does cause bitterness however, and that is an ugly thing indeed. The word ‘bitterness’ is used to describe a taste on the tongue with good reason. You know what bitterness tastes like. Do you want to taste like that? No.
Unfortunately in this modern social media age, it is very easy to get swept up in the show-real like existence of others. Very rarely will celebrities update their fan sites with the words “had a totally boring day buying tampons and other bits and bobs from the chemist, but I did find some nice buns that were marked down by 50%, then ate a ham sandwich for dinner, in bed by nine”. For that matter, it needn’t be the rich and famous that edit their lives, your friends do it too…..and maybe you do as well. The thing is, does it matter?
And the answer is no. If your mate always posts amazing meals they eat, try being happy for them. Really. Try it. You may not have eaten like that today, but does it matter? Maybe that person is boasting, maybe that person is just really happy. If they want to take a picture of their happy thing, good-o !! There are many ways to look at it, but the reaction you have is yours to control.
Don’t hate someone simply because you think they have it better than you…..do they really? And if they do, hurray !!! You know some cool people. If the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence it’s because you are spending too much time looking over the fence and not enough time watering the grass on your side.
So let it go. Fill that time that you normally spend comparing yourself to someone with things that make you happy, and stop being upset about what others are doing, or being, or not doing, or not being and just focus on you. What are YOU doing? Who are YOU being? Are you happy? No? Then, sit down and think about what is making you green and start thinking about how you can start doing and being the things that make you feel pink inside instead.
When you feel that nasty green monster raising its head, shoo it away with the words “I’m really very happy for that person actually, and I’m going to celebrate my happiness by doing ‘X’ for myself. There you go, grass watered. Pretty soon your garden will be so overflowing with colour that others will look over your fence and wonder how you manage it.
