Thought On Sadness

Iknow pain isn’t a fun thing to talk about, and it can seem dramatic and whatever else. But it’s also a real part of the human experience, and it’s a part I’ve been dealing with, or not really dealing with, lately.

I’m realizing if you want to get better at dealing with pain, you need to spend some time with it. When I’m hurting, I usually try to just stop the pain. I’m bad about this when I work out, which totally defeats the point and means I don’t ever make much progress. I don’t push myself enough. I think this same thing happens when I feel emotional pain too. Instead of sitting at home sad and alone, I go out with friends. I try to do “fun” things. I try to distract and exhaust myself until I can just go to bed and not have to feel as much. But that means I don’t get better, I don’t get stronger, and my pain tolerance is still so low that when something else upsetting happens I don’t know how to deal with it.

So, I’ve decided when I’m hurting, I don’t need to run away from it. I think it’s important to spend some time alone, to recognize what I feel, and to push through to get stronger. I think it’s okay to be honest about this with other people as well.

I’m over having to hide difficult feelings. I don’t know why so many of us always think if someone is sad, they need to change or hide it. Sadness is a part of being human. While I don’t think we should sit around and wallow in it or let it take over our lives, I don’t see the harm in being able to tell someone, “I’m just sad right now.”

The other day I walked down the street crying—not sobbing, just crying—and it felt amazing. I decided it was silly to try and hide something I was very much experiencing for the sake of other people and chose instead to just be a person and feel. It was extremely freeing.

Sadness doesn’t last forever. There are too many emotions in this world and in the human heart to only experience one for an entire lifetime. If that’s the case, then I say take it for what it is. Experience it, feel it, let ourselves be human. Keep living despite it; don’t let it stop you. But recognize it and then keep going. Things will change eventually but only if we’re honest with what we feel and try to learn something from it. Truthfully, we sell ourselves short to do anything less.