Monday, January 17, 2011

Jealousy as a Lodestone

One of my motto's this year is: Be the sort of person you'd be jealous of.

Measure your gut reaction.....Does that sound exciting? Inspiring? Are you smiling? Or does that sound negative and scary?

"Jealousy" is a word. For me, it's not a stuck, ugly place, it simply means the things I see in others that I'd like to have more of in my life. Paying attention to what I feel "jealous" of, and making a conscious decision to add MORE of_________ to my own life is positive.

How does this work?
So I might be at an art show and feel jealous of this artist with massive paintings. I might then realize I haven't given myself permission to work in large format. I can then move in a new direction if I like. Say yes to LARGE! Super size my canvas please!

Or I might envy a friend who's taken a vacation. I would pay attention to that feeling within myself, and may then make a decision to save for my own trip, or look at what I choose to spend my money on, and I could realign my values and goals, then make a plan with my family. Of course I'm also excited FOR her, love to see her photos, get inspired, and use those feelings to plan my own trip too.

I could feel jealous of a friend who seems fully surrounded by lovely friends, and turning that feeling inward, I could see I'd like to be spending more time with my own friends, or making some new ones. I could then act on those feelings.

I could feel annoyed with a family member who is always day dreaming. Why doesn't she do more DOING and less la dee dah ing about it all? Turn that inward and I might find I actually feel annoyance through jealousy. Perhaps I've been working too hard and really DO need more day dreaming in my life. Wow, that shouldn't be so hard, huh?

(all names and places in the fictitious above events have been changed to protect the innocent of course)

Jealousy is about ourselves and what we might be needing a bit MORE of in our lives. I don't need to be worried about getting stuck in negativity because there's plenty of goodness to go around once I know what it is I am missing. Let envy be your lodestone. Then give yourself permission to have MORE. More love, more time for art, more playfulness, or daydreaming, to change your spending habits to put MORE of your money where you really value it, to create more, treat yourself kindly more, speak what's in your heart more. More.

So what are you jealous of?


Go "green" with envy.


Being the sort of person that I could be jealous of means specific things to me. This entails my year to come being full of big handsome risks, living big, putting my dreams out there, traveling with my family, paying attention that I spend my time on the things, people, activities I value highly, giving to my community, dealing with difficult things promptly, keeping focused on my daily exercise, speaking straight from my happy heart and feasting in joyful abundance. DANG, I am jealous already! Let's go!

xoxoxoxoxo

3 comments:

Aly- Bliss Monkey Studio said...

Oh and I'd be jealous of myself if in this year of BEING the person I'd be jealous of, if I got even better on the ukulele, if I learned to ski and went to ArtFest in Seattle for my birthday.

Live it, Baby! :-)

Abigail said...

I like your approach to jealousy. I think I'm going to borrow it.

Abigail (got here from MB, though your link doesn't work, so I had to google)

kyra said...

Wow, what a powerful sentence: Be the sort of person you'd be jealous of. I love it! It instantly made me think "I want to do that!" And how did I feel? Completely and utterly excited to be the kind of woman that I look at in awe... I might need to borrow it as well.