Jealousy, in particular, is characterized by two key patterns of thought and action. Because the distinction between feeling jealous and behaving jealous is so critical for how to truly control your jealousy, let's take a deeper look at it. When you feel jealous, this emotion has a strong negative effect on your experience of life. You feel bad about yourself and believe that you are not good enough for someone else to love you. However, acting on your feelings of jealousy will only make the situation worse. If you go around trying to prove that you are not worthy of love, then you will never be able to take comfort in the fact that another person does love you. The next time you feel jealous, try to stop and think if you are really acting on your feelings or just thinking things over that don't make sense. If you can figure out where you are going with your thoughts, you can take steps to change them.