Looking at other people with jealousy, envy, and mean and bitter thoughts isn’t new to our world. The concept of giving other people the evil eye has been around for a long time. It’s mentioned in almost every religion and culture in the world.

Sometimes we’re not conscious of the darker thoughts we think. We might believe that ill will and the feelings connected with it—envy, jealousy, resentment—are wrong. So when we feel that way, we push those feelings and thoughts aside.

“I remember lying in bed one night, tortured by my marriage, but believing it would violate my religious beliefs to get divorced,” a woman said. “I started counting the years until I thought my husband might die. A light came on. I realized that wishing him dead was a lot worse than saying good-bye.”

We want to believe there’s a balancing force that prevails in the world. And while this force is balancing things out, we’d like to get some of the good stuff too. Hey, God, remember me?

Challenge: The hardest thing about practicing goodwill is believing that when we’re happy for other people—even when they’re happier than we are—it will make us the happiest people in the world.

From the book: 52 Weeks of Conscious Contact