The essayist Joseph Epstein once observed that of the deadly sins, envy is the only one that isn’t any fun. Yet how many of us are consumed by it? How many special moments, relationships and experiences has it ruined

That is no way to live.

It’s like it never occurs to us that our lives might be pretty great and that other people might be jealous of us. That’s the blinding effect of envy. We get so focused on what others have that we lose the pleasure of the things we already have.

Marcus Aurelius provides a solution: “Don’t set your mind on things you don’t possess…but count the blessings you actually possess and think how much you would desire them if they weren’t already yours.”