According to studies on the emotion of envy, people are more likely to feel jealous before anything happens than after. As you become older, you're less likely to feel the need to compare yourself or your situation to someone else's. However, the positive feelings you are experiencing remain. While these two types of jealousy frequently overlap, thinking about them individually might help us better understand how jealous feelings impact different aspects of our life and how we can best cope with jealousy. It's a simple fact that relationships run more smoothly when individuals aren't unduly envious of one another.