4 Healthy Ways to Deal with Jealousy

This article is part of a series on how to cope with common feelings that can be tough to experience. Here, experts provide simple strategies for acknowledging and managing feelings of jealousy.

Maybe something uncomfortable stirred inside you when your partner complimented your friend on her shoes but didn’t even notice your new haircut. Or perhaps you feel a bit replaced when your newly engaged best friend spends more time with their fiancé.

Jealousy like this is a completely natural feeling and not necessarily bad, though it can be emotionally painful. “It’s an emotion that all humans will feel at some point,” says Pauline Peck, Ph.D., a licensed clinical psychologist in Santa Barbara, California. But learning how to deal with jealousy in healthy ways is an important part of maintaining both good relationships and good mental well‑being.