Try this. Sometimes when I’m having a hard time feeling sympathetic joy for another person’s good fortune, I ask myself the question: What would I gain from this person’s not getting such and such? And it is quite clear to me that I don’t benefit at all from someone else’s loss.
Often, without consciously realizing it, we’re convinced that the good thing someone else got was destined for us but got detoured to them by some hideous, unjust twist of fate. But, of course, we need to look at that assumption.
Cultivating sympathetic joy opens the door to realizing that the happiness of others doesn’t take anything away from us. In fact, the more joy and success there is in the world, the better it is for everyone.
— Sharon Salzberg in Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation