Jealousy OR Territorial?

One moment when I was lunching with my colleagues, as usual, we swam into the sea of schmooze. As many of us would proceed to spice the conversation so that it gives an electrifying flavour, our tongues swept every matter related to our life thereby, leaving almost everything barely unexposed. 

From wealth to power, fortune to talents, the infatuation to love, hook-ups to break-ups, and of course, marriages and divorces were the main seasonings that gave the true extra zing.

But of all those things, we chattered more on ‘JEALOUSY’- an emotional malfunction caused due to the deficiency of wise wisdom. A series of debates sprung, each time punctuated with our own reasoning and justifications as to why one should have or not have jealousy.

Having observed the tsunamic wave of consequences caused due to jealousy, we settled that the impulse of getting jealous should be weeded from the garden of our mind to the best possible, which in reality is taxing. Jealousy, either for good or bad intention transpire in our mind only when we want something that isn’t really ours, be it wealth, opportunities, status or prestige. 

When it grows in our mind, it clouds our judgement, making everything around us seemingly insecure and threatening which necessarily may not be. Due to this ripple effect, psychologically, our mind is often modified to be like a pressurized cabin to harbour an attitude of extreme possessiveness which further worsens the nature of our mind because we become ugly, resentful and judgmental of the good things around us.  

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Even in the working environment, the muscle of jealousy can irreparably clot and freeze a relationship of any sort. While its prevalence is commonly known and identified as incurable, reduction of its growth is quoted to be possible.

Of many alternatives, one key to limit jealousy is being territorial. Territorial is protecting what is already ours. It is largely a matured instinct that will define the rightful ownership and make us possessive of what is really our own. For instance, being aggressive for the opportunity that comes in our name and suddenly someone walks away with, is being territorial, not jealous. This is one common flaw I observed in almost all organizations, leading to an abrupt emergence of conflicts in the system.

But at times, being territorial in a place ruled by the people polluted with the dust of jealousy is often the most difficult task to navigate their mind into the world free of it.

“I am not jealous, but when something is mine…, it’s mine”- Anonymous