How to be Sad

We live in an age when reality TV shows climax in a tearful finale. But feeling sad genuinely sad is still taboo. Yet, sadness happens to us all, sometimes in heartbreakingly awful ways. If we dont know how to be sad, it can be isolating for those experiencing it and baffling for those trying to help others through dark times. Today, most of us know intellectually that sad is normal. But were not always brilliant at allowing for it, in practice. Sadness is going to happen, so we might as well know how to do it right. And its time to start facing our problems and talking about them. Positive psychology may have become more accepted in mainstream culture, but rates of depression have continued to rise. Were trying so hard to be happy. But studies show that we could all benefit from learning the art of sadness and how to handle it, well. We cannot avoid sadness so we might as well learn to handle it. Helen Russell, while researching two previous books on happiness, found that today most of us are terrified of sadness. Many of us are so phobic to averse to negative emotions that we dont recognise them.