Sadness

Available for over a year

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with Steve Taylor Some people feel that sadness is a sign of weakness. We’re supposed to be cheerful, or at least to present a cheerful exterior to the world. When friends or colleagues ask us how we are, no one expects us to say, “I feel quite down at the moment actually.” Public shows of sadness are embarrassing. If someone starts sobbing during a work meeting, or leaves a party because they feel depressed, it’s a serious breach of social codes. We might also feel ashamed of sadness, as if we’re letting ourselves down. Surely sadness means that our lives are not running smoothly, that we’ve allowed negativity to enter our minds. Surely if we were living in the right way, we’d feel happy all the time. But all this ignores the important function of sadness. From time to time, we are inevitably exposed to suffering – other people’s suffering or our own. From time to time, we’ll face hardship and turmoil in our lives. Sadness is a coping mechanism. It helps us to process suffering. If we don’t allow ourselves to feel sad, suffering stays inside, and builds up pressure, and may even poison us, turning into bitterness and guilt. Sadness releases the pressure and has a therapeutic effect. Or as I express it poetically: After your sadness has passed you’ll feel cleansed and refreshed like a plain that’s more fertile, after a flood has ebbed away. Inside the great space of your being you’ll feel deeper with humility richer with sensitivity more radiant with compassion and more passionate with selfless desire to bring healing to the world. So today, if I feel waves of sadness inside me, I won’t suppress them. I will allow them to flow through me, to express themselves and then pass. Blessings.