Are you sad these days? Do you suddenly burst into tears without apparent reasons? Have you acknowledged your emotions lately?
If you are sad, have you asked yourself the why?
Have you looked in the mirror and asked yourself why there are tears in your face?
Maybe you lost someone? Been fired from your job? Or might have ended a relationship? There are so many reasons why you can be sad today. And there are even few who doesn't know why they are sad.
But let me tell you one thing, whatever your reason is, you should know that it's okay to be sad. It is part of our lives. Sadness teaches us a lot of things. It makes us stronger and better. Remember the movie Inside Out?
What's wrong is to invalidate your feelings to keep up with society's pressuring hands. You shouldn't feel obligated to follow an invisible guideline.
When you are sad, the first thing you should do, as I said before is to validate your emotions. Acknowledge that you are human and you are capable of such emotions.
If have validated that feeling inside you, cry it all out. Cry and let the tears flow. Cry until there are no more tears to cry. Be vulnerable. Be fragile. Be whatever you want to be.
And when you are vulnerable you will see that there are people in your lives that must go. Cut ties to those people that invalidates you. And remain those who are real to you.
Find an ear that will listen to your woes. How much you want to be alone at this time, it is never okay. No man is an island, as the saying goes. Thus no one can survive in this world alone. It is okay to accept help from others. It is okay to want some warmth and love. And if you find yourself not wanting human contacts, there are always pets you can adopt. Cats? Dogs? Or Fishes?
Never allow yourself on a negative coping mechanism. Stop your addiction. Stop pitying yourself. Stop drinking too much. Stop eating so much. Stop scrolling in social media all day long. It won't lead you anywhere. It would only pull you deeper in a dark abyss.
Instead, keep yourself busy. Be proactive. Find hobbies that you will enjoy. Find things that you have never done before. Try reading? Or writing? Maybe cooking? You will see that when you are busy you are not allowing yourself from overthinking.
Be healthy, avoid sleeping late. Have a schedule. When you sleep late, you allow yourself to overthink. Don't you see that when it's dark and silent, you have no choice but to wallow on unnecessary things? It's true, sadness happens in the wee hours. It's also the reason why most suicides happen during night time. Because darkness and silence induces sadness.
If you can, try writing. If you cannot find someone to talk, let pen and paper be your friend. And you'll see that they are very dependable companions. Writing can be therapeutic; it can be a friend that will never judge you.
If you must, find a professional to help you. It's never okay to use Google and self diagnose yourself. My friend who is a psychiatrist told me that most people are burdening themselves with the idea that they have depression without asking professional opinion when in fact they are just sad. And it's true, I always tell myself if I'm feeling melancholic that I was just sad and nothing more. You would see how powerful your thoughts are.
Find the reason of your existence. Find a muse. Find an inspiration. You'd realize that most of us are sad because we feel lost. We don't know why we need to wake up everyday and keep moving. We don't know the reason why we can't stay in our dreams. When you find an inspiration, you'd realize that life is worth living.
And lastly, see beyond. See the small blessings that comes to your life. See the progress you made from a year ago. See the kindness in everyone. And you would feel grateful for the life you have.
I am not a professional these coping mechanisms are just based on my own experiences. You can skip this and ignore everything I said because it will still be all up to you.
Soon, you'd realize that your best motivator is yourself. And you have no choice but to keep moving forward.
At the end of the day, you would see that Sadness is just and emotion and it cannot dictate who you are.
Don't let it eat you and no matter what happens, find a reason to put a smile on your face.
Images attached in this article are owned by the author unless stated.
