Sarah, I hear you! I am somewhat newly separated and have taken a pretty large hit in the amount of disposable income I have and the types of things I can afford. I rarely if ever used to feel jealous about material things that others had and now I often do. Interestingly, I now sometimes feel jealous of my T's wealth also whereas I truly did not care or even notice much before. It doesn't cut so deep as to make me feel inferior or hopeless but certainly I find it to be an uncomfortable feeling.

I really don't like feeling jealous of others. It's an odd and shameful feeling for me. I am trying to do that thing of noticing the feeling without judging it and just sitting with it. For me, at its core, there is a lot of sadness and anxiety. Sadness that my marriage didn't work out and that my ex has behaved with very little integrity, anxiety that no matter how hard I work there might never be enough, sadness that other people get to share the work of being adults with spouses and I seem to have to do it all myself.

Being relatively wealthy is something for which I am grateful. As others have mentioned, gratitude is a pretty powerful antidote for jealousy and resentment. I really do try to cultivate and nurture gratitude within me as much as I can remember to.

But it's also okay to be sad sometimes for what you wish you had but do not.