What Is One of the Hardest Emotions to Experience? The Answer Is Jealousy

“The social and moral stigma surrounding this emotion is so strong, that we have a hard time confessing to feeling envy.” Throughout our lives we go through a roller coaster of emotions, but jealousy is for sure one of the most difficult emotions to experience. Jealousy first stepped into our lives when we were all innocent little kids. For instance, going to someone’s birthday party and getting jealous after seeing all the amazing toys they got. As high school students, we still frequently experience jealousy. For example, when you get a low grade on a test and feel jealous of the people who received a high score. If you have ever watched Ted Lasso, another example is when Nate becomes jealous after Roy Kent returns and becomes a new assistant coach. Jealousy has been a part of our lives since we were kids and it’s never going to leave. It’s such a heavy emotion because we often feel jealous but never want to admit it. Primarily because jealousy reveals things in our personality that we don’t initially realize ourselves. Envy often comes from comparing ourselves to others. And when we compare ourselves to others, it reveals new character traits in a person and makes us feel worse about ourselves. 

Ted Lasso: Nate gets jealous after Roy Kent becomes an official coach

In Recitatif, Morrison is able to illustrate the difficulty of feeling envious through one small scene. When Roberta and Twyla were having lunch in the teachers’ lounge, Twyla describes how Roberta’s mother brought “chicken legs and ham sandwiches and oranges and a whole box of chocolate-covered grahams.” While Twyla’s mom brought absolutely nothing. Twyla’s feeling of envy is portrayed when she reacts by saying, “Things are not right. The wrong food is always with the wrong people.” Clearly, Twyla is bothered by the fact that Roberta has a delicious lunch while she has nothing. She’s jealous. Ultimately, this shows that comparing our lives with others can result in the feeling of envy. Twyla compares what she doesn’t have to what Roberta does have, and she ends up feeling jealous. Because of jealousy, Twyla is frustrated that she doesn’t have the same experience as Roberta. Jealousy is such a difficult emotion to deal with because it sparks a chain reaction of other emotions. Anger, sadness, anxiety, doubt, insecurity. Jealousy is overwhelming.