Sadness is an emotion we all feel from time to time, but it doesn’t take the award for something someone strives to feel. When we allow ourselves to recognize and feel it, it can have very healing effects.

When you feel sadness, what does it look like? To me, it looks like someone with a heavy heart. Perhaps a tearful person. Sometimes it looks more like a disturbing disappointment. Other times, it looks like a puppy with forlorn looking eyes.

When I feel sadness, my brow wrinkles a certain way. My heart sinks into my belly. I’ve shed a tear or two, or maybe even buckets. Sometimes my eyes swell from crying, and my cheeks feel taut from the release of salty tears. And, you guessed it, a generous flow of, well, snot can happen when I cry. There’s an image!

It feels heavy and ponderous, like a sticky substance that won’t let go. Thinking about sadness, I know that there are different types of sadness, like grief or loss, a sadness that comes from discouragement or dismay, perhaps even misfortune.

What is the purpose of sadness; how does it function on our behalf? Sometimes, sadness is a way for our bodies to process loss or grief. When someone dies, it is normal to feel sad. Feeling it helps us to grieve and let go, to shift from the focus of loss toward how things are different. Perhaps feeling sad helps us to relate to what happiness is. After all, how would we fully understand happiness without knowing sadness? Feeling sadness is important in many circumstances to help us grow and shape ourselves into who we want to be. And then there’s the benefit of eye health that comes from crying.

When the time is right for you, I invite you to examine what sadness is all about. What does sadness look like to you? How does it feel to you? Once you identify it, see if you can understand its purpose. I know it seems inequitable to think about it this way, but sadness can, in fact, be a gift.

Our feelings can be fluid vessels of goodness…

If you would like to explore more feelings in the Stayin’ in Touch book, click here for more information.

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Image by Rudy and Peter Skitterians from Pixabay