Sadness Isn't Always A Bad Thing

First we talked about fear, then we talked about happiness, and now we're going to talk about sadness. No one ever enjoys being sad, and it's an emotion we love to push away. Based solely on instinct, we always do the best we can to avoid sadness. When someone cries, our first reaction is to make it stop and try to cheer that person up.

But sadness is a natural part of life and it does has a purpose. Look at this quote from Pinterest, as you probably know by now Pinterest is the source for all of my image quotes.

"It's okay, even the sky cries sometimes."

When the sky cries, it rains. The rain provides water to the planet and water helps our planet stay alive, science 101. In some parts of the world, rain is a rare thing. Like my home state, California, is in a severe drought. The lack of rain makes life a lot harder, with no rain there isn't enough water for everyone to survive. All organisms need water to live and survive.

Now what does rain have to do with sadness? Absolutely nothing. But it does act as an interesting metaphor. When the sky is dark and gray, that is equivalent to a human being feeling sad. When the sky rains, it is similar to a human being crying. And if we've learned anything from science, we know that rain is a good thing. Also Luke Bryan said that in a song once, so it must be true. What a fascinating analogy isn't it?

And here's the part where I bring up the genius Pixar film, Inside Out. In the film, Sadness (as you can see on the right) is looking to find her purpose as an emotion. The other emotions don't understand Sadness and she is treated like she is useless and unneeded. But what no one realizes about Sadness is that she is really smart and empathetic. She knows how to respond to situations and thinks clearly, unlike the other emotions who react based off their feelings.

Spoiler alert: but Sadness does indeed learn her purpose as an emotion and learns she is very powerful. It is her job to tell others when Riley needs help so she can explain her sadness and then learn to let it go rather than have it all bottled up. Pixar amazingly shows how Sadness and all the other emotions function, and it is quite remarkable.

From watching Inside Out, personally, I learned a lot about my emotions and it made a lot of sense why it feels like they can be out of control sometimes. With our emotions we need a balance, there isn't one main emotion in charge. It's not healthy to be happy, sad, mad, scared or disgusted all the time. A healthy person has balanced emotions and uses them all when necessary.

So technically, having those sad days every once and while is quite healthy. Having a good cry and talking about your feelings is normal and should always be done. I love to have a good cry every once and a while because honestly it just makes you feel so much better in the end.

So here are a couple of things that make sad:

• When my favorite restaurants or shops close down unexpectedly or early
• Getting rejected
• Dropping my ice cream cone, or any kind of food that I'm eating
• Losing someone close to you
• The Kardashians are rich and famous for no reason
• The fact that books are a dying breed
• My favorite TV shows getting cancelled
• Expired coupons

So there are couple things that make me sad. But no matter what anyone tells you, it's okay to be sad sometimes. Never push down your feelings, it's always better to express them. Tell me, what makes you sad? And how do you handle it? Until next time!