Sadness is almost never anything but a form of fatigue. André Gide
It is an inescapable part of life, yet sadness isn’t welcome and so people react to sadness in varied ways. While many people openly display their distraught image through tears and wailing, there are others who keep a stoic and glum face but most people suppress the tears welling up and grieve deeply within and carry their personal burden in their hearts. Anything negative is a cause of sadness but the intensity varies with the magnitude of the impact of the negativity, on those whom it affects. From failures in exams to failures in relationship to suffering from illness and the death of close relatives and friends the list of woes that perpetrate sadness are innumerable and people react in varied ways to it.
If tears are common expression of sadness the more difficult reactions range from silence to withdrawal and anger to temporary irrationality but it is when is harder when people suffer from depression and resort to the ultimate act of suicide that sadness moves to a different plane. The more personal the grief the harder it is to overcome. A death of a parent or sibling or very close loved one perhaps ranks very high in the list of events with the heighted sadness quotient. If the event is sudden and the person involved relatively young and popular, this sadness quotient goes up dramatically. Most other causes for failure rank relatively lower though breaking down of marriage and estrangement of friends would affect a person in almost the similar way for it is death of a relationship!
If one were to closely analyze the concept of sadness one would make a profound discovery that while sadness is a very painful and difficult experience to go through, time is a great healer. Time dulls the pain and we reconcile to the reality. The experience of the sadness though, remains etched in our heart and at times when our emotions are not on even keel and the cares of the world tire us out and frustrate us, memories of those poignant moments keep recurring and we lapse into a resigned state of sadness and hopelessness. While our mind accepts the reality of the sad experience our heart pines to connect with that pain for it provides us a solace that life can’t get worse and that we can still overcome despite being mentally and physically fatigued.
The best antidote for sadness is a good cry followed by the physically comfort of a hug from loved ones and intimate friends. The weeping releases the pent up emotions and the hug reassures us of the support system that is readily available for all eventualities. Ultimately we need to play our part and put the past behind and recoup physically, mentally and emotionally and realize that life is a journey not a destination. We need to traverse it by ourselves – alone notwithstanding the upheavals that occasionally tinge our life with unexpected sadness.
Remember: “Smile, even if it’s a sad smile, because sadder than a sad smile is the sadness of not knowing how to smile.”
Try this:
- Click on the following link and read the expansion of the acronym SMILE – See My Instant Life Energizer http://poweract.blogspot.com/2010/01/smile.html
- Look around and seek out people who rarely smile or those who walk around with a frown or a sad expression. People who are often too critical and who keep complaining all the time too are people who are more often than not sad. Attempt to talk to these people and without being too intrusive try to seek the source of their sadness and give them some encouraging words and practical suggestions. You may have to repeat this a couple of times before you actually notice a positive change in them. However the best part of the whole exercise is that you come back feeling a lot better and feeling nice about having made an attempt to brighten up someone’s life.
This post is courtesy www.actspot.com
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