Is Your Sadness Dragging On For Too Long Or Taking Over?
- Feb 2, 2023
- 5 min read
Updated: Feb 4, 2023
Written by: Jane Morales, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
How to overcome sadness? It is quite common to ask yourself this question. Sadness is an emotion that tends to generate significant discomfort in us. However, the most considerable inconvenience occurs when it lengthens over time, affects the different areas of life, or causes depression that leads to absence.
All the emotions we feel, whether good or bad, help us throughout our lives and forge our character; as time goes by, we learn to handle them. In the case of sadness, it is not objective to say it is damaging because it is normal to feel it. What is not constructive is to enter an apathetic circle in which this feeling becomes permanent.
It is essential to learn how to manage our primary emotions; in this way, we build a clearer picture of how life situations affect us. For example, sadness is one of the emotions that can cause the most harm is vital to recognize it, know what it is, and be clear about how to manage and overcome it.
What is sadness?
Sadness is one of the primary emotions that human beings experience, along with joy, anger, and fear. There are other emotions linked to sadness that sometimes cover it up, cover it as anger can be. That happens because it is less difficult to accept anger than sadness in our society since it has a negative connotation as a sign of weakness.
Feeling sad is not a problem. On the contrary, it is normal and healthy to have and show this feeling in certain situations. Every emotion has a function that makes it easier for us to adapt to the reality in front of us. Some of the tasks of sadness are focusing on oneself, promoting introspection, slowing down, and promoting the search for support and empathy. However, on certain occasions, it can become pathological and even lead to a disease or psychological disorder such as depression.
Suppose you are immersed in a loop of negative thoughts and cognitions for a long time. In that case, you have been invaded by pessimism, and it is affecting other areas of your life, that sadness may no longer be adaptive and pathological. Another sign of what a problem can be is that you have tried to overcome it yourself without success.
Nobody wants to be sad. There are people whose main pleasure is victimizing themselves in their environment, but there is a difference between"to feel sorry" and "to feel sorry." Even these people are looking for a thousand ways to overcome sadness.
Sadness is a natural emotion. Therefore, sadness is part of life if it does not take over our lives. However, when it lingers, we must learn how to manage it to avoid serious psychological problems like depression.
Here are some tips that might help.
What to do if you are sad?
Cry if you feel like it. Sadness is an emotion like any other and has its function. You have the right to feel sad and cry if you need it. Unfortunately, knowing what to do when you're sad is not easy.
Accept your moment and give yourself time. It's okay. Sometimes the best way to change something is to accept it and stop fighting it. We can feel happy after a while. Every process takes its time.
Do not judge how you feel. The judgment we make about our feelings generates more significant discomfort: "what I am supposed to feel, what others will think, what I think I am for feeling like this..." Being sad wouldn't affect us so much if we didn't think that says something about us and we cling to it; we can see it as an emotion that, like any other, just as it comes, goes away.
Do not isolate yourself. The tendency to isolate helps us feel even worse when we are sad. While it is true that there are times when we need to be in solitude, sharing moments with other people distracts us, it makes us think about other things so as not to continue feeding the negative feeling.
Talk about it, share it. When we feel sad, we don't have to go through this alone; if you try, you will discover that talking about something or venting can be liberating. We will always find at least ONE person willing to listen: a friend, a family member, an acquaintance, a professional... Even a diary can be handy! Take up your time. What do you want to do? A priori, the answer can be "nothing." Apathy takes over our decision-making power. If this stays in time, stop and think calmly. Are you sure that something does not come to mind? Trivial things fill our day-to-day:
A hot bath.
A movie.
Going for a walk.
Chatting with a friend.
Preparing our favorite dish.
Signing up for an activity that can bring us entertainment and excitement will make us feel less sad.
Take care of your appearance and your hygiene. Take a shower, get dressed, and take care of your hygiene. Paying attention to something so basic is essential. It means taking care of us: if a person cannot forget you, it is yourself. In addition, seeing each other well contributes to improving our mood.
Go out on the street. If we spend the entire day in our bubble, the atmosphere will end up flawed. There is more oxygen out there. So please go out and breathe it!
Establish a routine that pushes us to organize our day-to-day and not abandon ourselves in sadness and loneliness.
Try a sport. Playing sports, in addition to helping us disconnect and release emotions, causes us to generate a series of hormones that contribute to maintaining a positive mood against sadness and loneliness.
Focus on the present. "What is done, it is done." It seems easy to say, but we cannot go back to make up for time or change the past. However, we can focus our attention and effort on 'today' to take advantage of the time and change the future. It is essential to keep this in mind to combat loneliness.
Set small daily or weekly goals that can help combat sadness and loneliness. Focus on other issues and pay less attention to those worrying you. Every process takes its time. Reviewing, analyzing, and seeing our progress can help us feel animated and stimulated.
If necessary, seek professional help. For example, when we are sad, we cannot recover by relying solely on our environment, yet there is a way out. Just as we go to the doctor when we do not feel well, why not go to the psychologist when our heart hurts? Take charge of your emotional state, your inner self. Learn to watch your feelings and control what happens inside your heart and your mind. Do not let your thoughts take over and run through you without you even knowing. Be the boss of your daily feelings, wishes, goals, and outcomes.
Jane Morales, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Jane Morales is a Human Development, Leadership, and Assertiveness Coach, Meditation Master, Writer, and Public Speaker. She holds a BS in Marketing from Bentley University in Boston and a Master of Science in Communications from Boston University. In addition to her higher education, she is trained in The Power of Intention, Positive Affirmations, and Living your own Success. She completed a higher degree in Psychosynthesis Psychology which expands the boundaries of human potential exploring values and purpose in life.
