Let's touch on one dark structure of our soul - envy. What it is? This is a whole complex of feelings (from irritation and anger to powerlessness and helplessness) that arises in a person when comparing himself with others who, in his opinion, are more successful, or have greater benefits, or when observing the success of other people. Envy includes: - desire to have something that does not yet exist; - anger towards someone who already has it; - fear that it will never be possible to get it; - sadness and powerlessness due to the fact that what is desired is not there. In religion, envy refers to mortal sins, but not everywhere. For example, Islam divides envy into “black” and “white”. This division came to us from there. “Black” envy, which gnaws at a person from the inside, undermines his health and harms relationships, is considered an unconditional evil and is condemned, and “white” envy, when a person continues to treat a person in a kind way, is superior to him in some way, is considered a good manifestation. To me It is more common to divide into “bad” and “good” not the feeling itself, but what a person does with it: actions. For example, you can envy your neighbor that he has done a good renovation at home and... smear his door with oil paint - there is nothing good in such an act. But you can earn money and make repairs in your apartment no worse - the feeling that motivates a person is the same, but the action is completely different. That is, the same feeling can motivate a person to destroy and constructive actions - that’s such an interesting envy! Basically, of course, when they talk about envy, they mean precisely destructive manifestations, which is why it is considered a bad feeling, and we are taught from childhood not to envy. But is it easy not to envy? Perhaps envy has its roots in the same place as greed - in the desire to possess resources for survival and reproduction. And envious people are people who do not have access to their reserves of vital energy in order to get themselves what they need. So when they see that someone else has achieved success faster than them, they get that same feeling. Moreover, envious people tend to destroy and humiliate themselves, thus depriving themselves of the necessary level of energy. “Well, of course, your parents are rich!”, “Where are we, poor and poor!”, “God didn’t give me as many brains as you!” - all these are examples of comparing yourself with others not in your favor. And here we move on to another internal construct - self-esteem. A person with healthy, stable self-esteem, in general, has no need to envy other people: he himself is confident that he is able to achieve what he wants. Let me remind you that a person with healthy self-esteem correlates his desires with his capabilities. For example, we can remember many people whose capabilities (abilities, strengths, resources, enthusiasm, willingness to sacrifice something) were not very good, but their ambitions were simply enormous! This is not about health. It's more about narcissism or psychopathy. But health is always a balance, taking into account possibilities when desires arise. And the willingness to increase these opportunities: to learn, to invest energy in acquiring knowledge, skills and abilities. But in a person with unhealthy self-esteem: for example, as with the above-mentioned narcissism or psychopathy, or with high anxiety, or with a dependent personality structure - envy arises more easily, because the internal balance is generally disturbed, and the emergence of destructive feelings occurs much easier. Therefore, the main thing when working with envy is to strengthen your self-esteem, learn to believe in yourself, learn to hear your desires and relate them to capabilities, learn to endure and work hard, learn to compare yourself not with others, but with yourself some time ago. This takes time and patience, but the result pays off many times over, because healthy self-esteem is not only about working with envy, it is about improving the overall quality of life: moving to an interesting job, refusing or reducing a toxic environment and moving towards a healthier one,.