You’re probably familiar with the term (and perhaps the experience) ‘Schadenfreude’. This is the joy one experiences when someone else has misfortune. While we might feel embarrassed acknowledging that we experience this, it does appear to be a very human reaction and is hardwired into our brains (see the Scientific Studies section in wikipedia). Indeed a considerable amount of humour is based on it.
The question, at the moment, is; what’s the opposite of Schadenfreude? What’s that negative feeling you have when someone else is successful? Aristotle referred to it as phthonos – the painful response to another’s good fortune. If you experience this then you are an epikhairekakos. In English it’s freudenschade. Some people even refer to it as envy.
I have noticed that when I talk to others and they tell me how well they’re doing and how business is booming I do SOMETIMES (very rarely, but it does happen) have just the mildest touch of this feeling (whatever you want to call it).
So why am I raising this? Because I hope it WON’T be the way you feel when I tell you about this week. Since the brain can’t deal with negatives (I just asked you NOT to feel something) let’s go with the Sanskrit term Muditā – the joy or delight in other people’s well-being or success.
Recently, I’ve had some help from Jess Hartono with my marketing. I’ve been marketing my Aviel business for years. I’ve been on LinkedIn, Google+, facebook, sent newsletters, attended networking groups, done all the things that marketers tell you to do. And yet, it just didn’t seem to get the results I was wanting.
So, Jess suggested something really revolutionary – get on the phone!! Um, derrr!!! OK, OK, unlike everyone else in the universe I don’t like making sales calls and so I hadn’t been able to find something that would work for me.
However, with Jess’ help, I put together a process that is getting results. (See my recent Cosmic Compass post about the importance of getting external perspective.)
Since what I do (using Astrology and Tarot to understand your life purpose) is somewhat out of left field and people are often challenged to ‘get it’ I’ve started offering free ‘discovery sessions’. These are short sessions (30-45 minutes) where I do a Tarot reading or a brief overview of your Astrological natal chart to give you a sense of how I see the world and our place in it. That session will then lead onto other sessions where we look at particular issues for you and come up with things you can do to make a real difference in your life.
This has resulted in a number of wonderful new relationships and new clients and even reconnecting with previous ones. Quite suddenly, I’m now finding myself with a capacity issue – a wonderful problem to have which I’m looking forward to being an ongoing issue for a very long time.
So, if you or anyone you know, would like one of these sessions (they’re by phone so are very convenient) please get in touch. Click here to email me with your contact details and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
Should you be feeling just a little bit of freudenschade/phthonos/envy remember the words of T Harv Ekker: “Bless that which you desire” and welcome to being human.
Instead, I hope you’re actually experiencing Muditā and I thank you for that. It’s also shown to have great health benefits as well as feeling nice.
Oh, and what’s this got to do with house-sitting. Nothing directly. I wanted to share with you some good news and since we’ve got this amazing house-sit (April to September) I was running out of house-sitting stories. BTW, if you know anyone going away from mid October please introduce us.