FOMO is a real thing. FOMO, or the fear of missing out, feels like a relatively new term used to describe the anxiety we feel when we see someone else living a lifestyle that we are not. FOMO produces in us a real emotional turmoil-"Wow, I wish I could have that" (fill in the blank with a thing, experience, lifestyle etc...). A pang hits our heart--"If only I was there and not here. If I didn't have this burden, I would be free to do/have that..." Think about it; FOMO is really envy on a grand scale.
Here's the thing: FOMO often leads to some bad decision making right? We've all been there, making hasty life-changing "choices" that aren't considered and measured for our particular set of circumstances. We look at what others have and do and wish we were in their shoes.
In my humble opinion, FOMO was one of the first recorded sins in the bible as committed by Eve. (I think the other one was co-dependency-more on that next blog). Most propose that Eve's choice to eat the apple was a willful act of disobedience. She knew God's directive to not eat the apple from the forbidden tree but she did it anyway. My thought is that what Eve feared was missing out on the imagined pow of having something she was being denied. Eve was the second human to arrive on the scene: maybe she thought she'd missed out on what Adam had experienced up to the point of her arrival and thought that eating the apple would help her get what she imagined she'd missed out on. However, could it have been the ROOT of ENVY in her act even more than the act it's self that was the problem?