“I just can’t help feeling bitter about what they’ve achieved”
David Litschel/Alamy
It is all too human to feel a little jealous of others’ success, but what can we do when those feelings threaten to overcome us? One reader this month describes some serious resentment at a friend’s promotion: “I just can’t help feeling bitter about what they’ve achieved.”
The obvious solution to envy would be to avoid comparing ourselves to the people around us, but that is easier said than done. Humans are social creatures who evolved in hierarchies, and our standing within a group would have…