Our Short Meditation To Reduce Feelings of Jealousy and Envy

The intention of this meditation is to help you with issues of jealousy or envy by wishing others well. The meditation video is about 8 minutes long and will guide the listener through a few exercises followed by a few brief periods for reflection. Some of the things covered include: absorbing the scope of someone else’s good fortune and celebrating their happiness as though it were your own. The practice ends with focusing on the good fortunes of people you don’t even know.

To listen to the meditation, simply press the play button on the video above.

The background music is 20 Blessings by Rebecca Reads Recordings, used under her Standard Music License.

Jealousy is when you count someone else’s blessings instead of your own.

-Unknown

Other Ways To Cope When You Are Jealous of Others

This article on DevelopingGoodHabits.com explains the difference between jealousy and envy and lists 10 ways to help you stop being jealous of other people. They are:

• Own your jealousy.
• Accept the fact that loving someone involves the risk of being hurt.
• Develop self-awareness to recognize the direction where you are headed.
• Appreciate who you are.
• Heal your wounds and let go of the past.
• Learn how to free yourself from resentment and anger.
• Replace the negativity with something uplifting.
• Tell your partner you trust him/her, and really mean it.
• Don’t act on your jealous feelings.
• Learn to be happy alone.

To read more about each strategy in detail, please click the link to the original article above.

Other Ways To Stop Envy

BecomingMinimalist.com offers A Helpful Guide to Overcoming Envy. The author’s recommendations to live free from the negative effects of envy are:

1. Shift your focus to the goodness in your life. (Our guided gratitude meditation can help with that!)
2. Remind yourself that nobody has it all.
3. Avoid people who habitually value the wrong things.
4. Spend time with grateful people.
5. Understand that marketers routinely fan the flame to foster envy.
6. Celebrate the success of others. (Our meditation video at the top of this page guides you through this exercise.)
7. Be generous.

The full article (linked to above) is definitely worth a read!

Envy is ignorance, Imitation is suicide.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Let us know in the comments below if our guided meditation to reduce jealousy and envy helped and if you have any other strategies you’d like to share.

Our Meditation for a Bad Day

The intention of this meditation is to help put things in perspective and keep in mind that even bad days have positive or neutral events within them. The meditation is about 8 minutes long and will guide the listener through a few exercises followed by a few brief periods for reflection. Some of the things covered include: tending to moments of difficulty with compassion and appreciating moments of contentment.

To listen to the meditation, simply press the play button on the video above.

The background music is Gentle Contemplation by Rebecca Reads Recordings, used under her Standard Music License.

Every Day May Not Be Good…But There Is Something Good In Every Day

-Anonymous

Other Ways To Cope With Bad Days

This PowerofPositivity.com article lists seven strategies to help people deal with bad days. They are:

• Get in touch with your support network.
• Listen to music.
• Play dress up.
• Exercise.
• Eat better.
• Do nice things for someone else.
• Assume control.
• Get outside.

Of course, we’d throw in “Meditate” as an eighth option, but we’re biased. (wink, wink.)

Speaking of listening to music, why not sing along to a song about a having a bad day?

Here are two that we enjoy:

The first one is Bad Day by Daniel Powter. The lyrics are certainly applicable.

“Cause you had a bad day, You’re taking one down, You sing a sad song just to turn it around…”

Daniel Powter, Bad Day

The second is Sad Songs (Say So Much) by Elton John. Sir Elton also understands the healing power of singing along to songs that resonate with us.

Guess there are times when we all need to share a little pain
And ironing out the rough spots
Is the hardest part when memories remain
And it’s times like these when we all need to hear the radio
‘Cause from the lips of some old singer
We can share the troubles we already know

Elton John, Sad Songs (Say So Much)

Here are three other coping strategies listed on PsychologyToday.com that may be helpful:

Things To Keep In Mind When You’ve Had A Bad Day

Daniel Wallen over at Lifehack.com has a great article where he lists 9 things to keep in mind if you’ve had a bad day. They are:

• No one promised life would be perfect.
• Success doesn’t happen overnight.
• There is a lesson in every struggle.
• Hard times help you appreciate the good.
• It’s okay to cry.
• Worry makes you suffer twice.
• No one’s life is as picturesque as it looks.
• It takes courage to ask for help.
• There’s always something to be grateful for.

We highly recommend reading the full article here.

Lastly, try and remember two things: we all have bad days and bad days are temporary.

Let us know in the comments below if our guided meditation for bad days helped and if you have any other strategies that you’d like to share.

Our Guided Mindfulness Meditation on Gratitude

This meditation is about 15 minutes long and will guide the listener through a few gratitude exercises followed by quite periods for reflection. Some of the things covered include: feeling grateful for yourself, your body, others, the world around us, and challenges we face. To listen to the meditation, simply press the play button on the video above.

The lovely background track is Moon on the Lake by Rebecca Reads Recordings, used under her Standard Music License.

Gratitude turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity…it makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

Melody Beattie (author)

Why is Gratitude Important?

Gratitude expert Robert Emmons, Ph.D. gives four reasons why gratitude is good for us:

• Gratitude allows us to celebrate the present and magnifies positive emotions.
• Gratitude helps block toxic, negative emotions.
• People who are grateful are more stress resistant.
• People who are grateful have a higher sense of self-worth.

Source: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/why_gratitude_is_good

Practicing Gratitude Has Health Benefits

There is a wonderfully, detailed article on PositivePsychology.com that lists 14 health benefits of cultivating gratitude. They are as follows:

For the individual:

– increased happiness and positive mood

– more satisfaction with life

– less materialistic

– less likely to experience burnout

– better physical health

– better sleep

– less fatigue

– lower levels of cellular inflammation

– greater resiliency

– encourages the development of patience, humility, and wisdom

For groups:

– increases prosocial behaviors

– strengthens relationships

– may help employees’ effectiveness

– may increase job satisfaction

Source: https://positivepsychology.com/benefits-of-gratitude/

Ways to Foster More Gratitude in Your Life

According to Harvard Health, there are several ways to develop gratitude. They are all great ideas, however, we are partial to the last suggestion. (Of course we are!)

How do you cultivate more gratitude in your life? Please let us know in the comments below.