Last weekend I watched the hilarious comedy Bridesmaids.  Besides being a side-splittingly funny view of two best friends’ (one the bride and the other the maid of honor) adventures in wedding planning, there was a serious message about jealousy.  The protagonist, who is asked by her BFF to be her maid of honor, struggles to balance her feelings of failure after her cake business goes belly up with her friend’s excitement about getting married. Her obvious envy and insecurity makes her do crazy and ultimately hurtful things that threaten her friendship with the bride to be.

Most of us like to think we are too mature to experience jealousy but even the most evolved among us can have bouts of it when we least expect it. I can remember a very clear incident of jealousy for me. When I was a manager working at a PR firm in New York my sole goal at the time was to land an international assignment in one of our Asian offices. It was my dream.  I did everything “right”. I made sure I had visibility among the right senior leaders; I landed plumb assignments on some of our biggest and most profitable client accounts, and every performance review I let my interest in an international assignment be known.

The gut punch came when a good friend and colleague of mine, who had less tenure than me at the firm, landed an assignment in China. I was beside myself. How in the hell did he get that assignment? What made him more qualified than me? While outwardly I was happy for him (and he was very qualified for the position to be fair), inside I seethed and raged that I wasn’t chosen. I was flat out jealous.  I stayed pissed off for a couple of weeks. Then somewhere along the way I pulled myself together and got down to work. I took my fate into my own hands and decided I wasn’t going to wait around for someone else to help me to fulfill a dream I had for many years. I started interviewing at other firms and looking at international teaching opportunities.  At the encouragement of a good friend, I took the Foreign Service exam to become a Foreign Service Officer with the US Department of State. To my shock and delight I passed the exam and was invited to Washington DC to interview. Ironically, while I was in the midst of the interview process and mentally preparing to quit my job,  the CEO of the APAC region of my firm called me and asked me if I’d be willing to take a two-year assignment in Shanghai. After much deliberation, I accepted the position.

That moment taught me a powerful lesson about jealousy and the way it can hang like a dark cloud overhead if you allow it. For me the turning point came when I recognized that I could do something about how I was feeling. The question for you is how can you put your feelings of jealousy into perspective and make them work for you? Here are a few things I’ve learned:

• Understand the underlying root cause of your jealousy. Accept it and then fix it. When you feel jealous, there is no point in denying it. Instead accept it and ask yourself  ”What is this telling me about how I’m feeling about my own life?” Often jealousy is a marker that we are dissatisfied with something in our lives. Rather than fixate on what a  friend has and you don’t, figure out what changes you need to make in your life to be more fulfilled and then do something even if it’s just one tiny baby step towards your goal.

• Recognize that the grass isn’t always greener. We all love a success story and often when we see others who have made great achievements, we don’t think about the struggles and suffering that they may have experienced to get to where they are.  Don’t assume that successful people got to where they are without effort, sacrifice or even heartache.

• Think abundance not scarcity. Some of us go through life acting as if there is not enough to go around. We act as if someone else’s success means there will be nothing left for us. Nothing can be further from the truth! We should celebrate the success and good fortune of those around us and draw inspiration from it. When I see a friend experience a success, I truly feel happy and inspired that I can do more to realize my dreams, that it’s possible for anyone even me.

• Practice expressing positive emotions and positive regard. The thing I hate about jealousy is that it makes you feel so bad. Jealousy creates that pit in your stomach and a bitter taste in your mouth. I have a wonderful friend, Tracey, who is by far one of the most positive people I know.  I used to tease her about being “relentlessly optimistic” but you know what? She’s on to something. She writes in her blog, Vine2Victory,  about the adversity she experienced in her life including four corporate lay-offs. Through it all she maintains an air of grace, a sense of humor and an aura of deep calm and positivity. She is truly a role model.

• Just say “no” to trash talk. Let’s face it, we are at a place in our culture today where trash talk and insults score points. It might feel good to blow off steam and talk smack about someone but more often than not, it just makes you look jealous and petty. All that negative talk also takes up mental space and energy you could be using to work towards realizing your own dreams for your own success. Practice expressing the kind of support and care for others that you’d like to receive.

We are all works in progress and none of us is immune to the green-eyed monster every now and then. But next time you feel yourself making a snarky remark when someone shares a success or expresses their joy, stop and ask yourself what your feelings of jealousy might really be telling you. What do you think? When’s the last time you felt jealous and how did you deal with it?

I’ve got #2 on the brain. Not that number two. I’m talking baby number two. It’s not a coincidence because lately it seems everyone is wondering if I’ll have a second baby. I find this questioning only slightly less invasive than having  my belly felt up when I was pregnant. D2 turns two in November and whenever anyone asks me how old he is, it’s always followed up with, “So are you going to give him a little brother or sister?” Last week at the salon my stylist put it much more bluntly, “So what’s the story, are we having a second baby or what?” *Gulp. Silence.* Heads swivled to look at me as I choked out the standard “We’re practicing!”line.  Sheesh. What do I say to such a personal question? My uterus has barely snapped back into place and already the questions are flying.

I’ve been saying that we really would like to give D2 a sibling if we can. Actually, I sort of feel that we are obligated to do so because we are older parents. When D2 turns 20 we’ll be 60. When  he’s 40 we’ll be …. oh God, I don’t even want to think about it. This sounds morbid but I fear that we’ll die and leave him alone while he’s still a relatively young man.

I think about my anxiety over possibly having another miscarriage, which I experienced before I had D2. It’s a tough emotional journey that many women don’t talk about – and it’s exceedingly common. I think about the letters AMA (Advanced Maternal Age) that will be scrawled across my chart that let everyone know at the OB/GYN  that you are officially past your prime but some how your eggs have managed to hang on for the last call at the bar. (Quick side bar: Ignore the B.S. lies you read in tabloids about 40 something celebrities and their claims they got pregnant “naturally” even though they are pumping out fraternal twins at alarming rates. There is no f@$*^!g way. Not Judging. Just saying.)

I think of all of the pros and cons of having a second child. On the pro side I think about:

1. D2 won’t grow up an only child and will have a sibling for friendship and company;
2. having my first child at age 40 has meant that I am a more centered, focused and mature mother which has been good for D2;
3. how I ‘m obsessed with my son and a second child will ensure I won’t smother D2 to death if I have another child to dote on;
4. having children exponentially opens your heart to wanting more;
5. how kids are just so much darn fun and Dr. D and I are having the time of our lives with D2;
6. how much I loved breastfeeding even though it was hell on my boobs.

On the Con side I think about:

1. whether I can love a second child as much as my first (I think I can but I worry about it);
2. whether I actually have any good eggs left to conceive (My OB seems to still think I’m in the Green Zone);
3. how pregnancy and recovering from pregnancy is pure hell on a post-40 body (my C-section scar still hurts);
4. the fact that Dr. D and  I are exhausted already with one toddler, can we really do two children under 5?
5. taking three months off for maternity leave and the anxiety and paranoia it caused me.
6. having two kids in college at the same time. Enough said.

All that said, I absolutely love being a mother and D2 is the single best thing that has happened in my life. I am thrilled watching him achieve all of the little milestones and yet also sad because it’s going so fast. I take in every day and am grateful for it. Even on my worst days, I really wouldn’t mind doing it all again.

So yeah, we are going to go for it. It’s not going to be easy. I know the statistics on getting pregnant after 40. But I choose to mainly focus on the positive; I’m in great shape and have a positive mental outlook. We’ll see if luck and the fertility gods are on our side. In the meantime, the next time someone asks me if I’m going to have number two I’ll just smile and say, “We’re practicing.”