At some point in our lives, we face an experience that wipes us out emotionally. It can be one little something that ruins our day in an instant, or a string of correlating actions that gradually strips down our confidence and happiness. Sadness, whether we like it or not, is a large part of our lives. While we consider it unfavorable and inconvenient, sadness is part of the process of growing as human beings.
What’s crucial to remember when faced with a sad experience is to remember to breathe. Too many times I have become a slave to my unhappy emotions and allowed them to consume me, and I know I am not alone in that endeavor.
Sadness doesn’t give two craps about your life or day, it’s just there to mess it up. In fact, when we are upset or hurt, our first thought is never that the sadness can help mold us for the better. We just concentrate on the next bite of ice-cream or how many times we need to blink so tears don’t fall. However, just taking a minute to breathe and step back from a sad situation can work wonders.
If we can distance ourselves from how we’re feeling to take a logical point of view can allow us to see the situation from fresh eyes. Often, a solution can sit right in front of us and the emotions block the ability to recognize such a simple fix. When facing a sad experience, there is so much value in waiting for the initial emotions to pass before attempting to go about solving the issue.
In addition to taking a step back, we also need to realize that while what we are feeling is horrible and sometimes even crushing, how we are feeling will strengthen us as people and we can grow. If we allow our sadness to consume us we will continue to wallow where we are, but if we can pick ourselves up and refuse to quit we can grow and learn from our experiences.
Now I’m not saying it will be immediate. After experiencing a rough break up with a significant other, I felt weak as a person and did not feel satisfied about the situation and did not until at least a year after. But now, several years later I can stand back and reflect on that situation and acknowledge that it was one of the best things to happen to me. I finally allowed myself to step back and accept what happened.
Thus, I grew incomparable and cannot say that I am even the same person I was before, and I am proud of who I have become and what I have accomplished since that event in my life. I believe the same is true for anyone needing condolence after a sad experience, as long as we accept our situation and let it strengthen us.
Just like happy memories shape us as people, the down and dirty sad experiences do to. And while it hurts in the moment, those experiences can be crucial to our growth and life story. In the words of Hunter Hayes as of Saturday night “There is so much more to this life than what you’re feeling now”.
Allow yourself to be open to change and growth from the negatives, and you’ll realize how much growth is waiting to happen.
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