Turning sadness into happiness involves a combination of shifting your mindset, taking positive actions, and seeking support, focusing on mindfulness, connecting with others, engaging in enjoyable activities, helping people, and maintaining physical health, but if sadness is persistent, professional help is crucial. It's about consciously choosing to engage with life in ways that build joy and finding purpose, rather than forcing happiness, by practicing gratitude and limiting negativity.
Open Yourself up to Happiness... Even When You're Sad
Maintain connections with others. Reach out to people you want to connect with, like your friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers. Get help from a professional, especially if your sadness does not go away. If you think you may be depressed, the first step to seeking treatment is to talk to a health care provider.
THE FUNCTION OF SADNESS
This can be a signal to others saying that we need comforting, or to ourselves to take some time and recoup from our loss. Some people can derive pleasure from their sadness and may even seek out experiences that evoke sadness for a cathartic effect.
Healthy ways to cope with sadness
Cry if you feel like it. Notice if you feel relief after the tears stop. Write in a journal, listen to music, spend time with friends or family and/or draw to express the emotion of sadness. Think about the context of the sad feelings.
The "5 R's of Depression" refer to key stages in the illness's course and treatment: Response (symptom improvement), Remission (few symptoms left), Recovery (sustained remission/symptom-free), Relapse (symptoms return before full recovery), and Recurrence (a new episode after full recovery). Understanding these stages helps track progress, prevent setbacks, and manage expectations in dealing with major depressive disorder, notes Psychology Today https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/two-takes-on-depression/201103/depression-do you-know-all-your-rs and the Eisenberg Family Depression Center.
The “90-second rule,” introduced by Harvard neuroscientist Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, reveals that an emotional surge in the body lasts only about 90 seconds—unless we mentally keep it alive.
It can occur for a variety of reasons and it has many different triggers. For some people, an upsetting or stressful life event, such as bereavement, divorce, illness, redundancy and job or money worries, can be the cause. Different causes can often combine to trigger depression.
Why do we feel sadness or any number of feelings shown here in the tree word cloud image? The root of sadness is, you guessed it, grief. There is no timeline for grief. Often, when we hear this, we may think about the long-term.
These emotions typically last a half-hour, give or take. On the long side, we have anxiety, hope, desperation, joy, hatred, and the winner by several lengths: sadness. Sadness is the outlier, lasting five days, or twice as long as the next closest entrant, hatred.
Psychological symptoms
The truth is that heartbreak can actually feel like a physical injury, and many people feel it in their bodies. Tight chest, upset stomach, loss of appetite, or fatigue are just a few of the many ways emotional pain shows up physically.
Don't drink too much alcohol
You may drink more than usual as a way of coping with or hiding your emotions, or just to fill time. But alcohol won't help you solve your problems and could also make you feel more depressed.
After analyzing the results, the researchers found that there's a certain age when people are happiest: 70.
While everyone might display these in their own way, there are a few common low self-esteem symptoms to look out for:
Enjoy yourself
Simple activities like watching sports with a friend, having a soak in the bath, or meeting up with friends for coffee can all improve your day. Doing something you're good at, such as cooking or dancing, is a good way to enjoy yourself and have a sense of achievement.
Major depression
Also known as: clinical depression, depression, unipolar depression. Major depression is when you feel sad, down or miserable most of the time. You might also lose interest in things you usually enjoy. Types of major depression include melancholia, psychotic and antenatal or postnatal.
There are a lot of different reasons why you might feel like nothing makes you happy. Certain mental health conditions like depression, anxiety, and PTSD can cause severe feelings of unhappiness, lack of motivation, and disinterest in activities that used to bring joy.
Depression is a complex mental health condition characterised by a range of emotional, cognitive, behavioural, and physical symptoms that go beyond just feelings of sadness, affecting individuals' day-to-day life.
The first stage of a mental breakdown, often starting subtly, involves feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, and increasingly anxious or irritable, coupled with difficulty concentrating, changes in sleep/appetite, and withdrawing from activities or people that once brought joy, all stemming from intense stress that becomes too much to handle.
New evidence shows that people who maintain a range of healthy habits, from good sleep to physical activity to strong social connections, are significantly less likely to experience depression.
Because of how depression affects both body and mind, long-term effects can be significant. Fatigue, loss of energy, and general hopelessness can lead to unhealthy habits. Loss of physical activity, poor nutrition, and weight gain or weight loss can have long-term impacts.
5 of the Hardest Emotions to Control
Romantic love can be a complex human emotion and chemical brain process found at the core of many relationships. Although love can feel powerful, exciting, and meaningful, it may fade in some relationships, even if your partner is still your best friend.
The 24-hour rule is a simple yet powerful guideline. When you find yourself upset, frustrated, or otherwise reactive, give yourself a full day to pause before acting. Instead of sending an impulsive email, making a confrontational call, or saying something you might regret, step away.