All emotions are necessary for human beings and each emotion has a function that allows us to adapt to the environment and survive. Emotions can be pleasant to us (such as joy) or unpleasant (such as sadness). Although, as we have begun by indicating, they are all necessary, we try to get rid of and/or avoid the unpleasant ones.
In this Psychology-Online article, we tell you how to manage sadness through fifteen tips that you can put into practice. You must keep in mind that, when sadness is intense, generates great discomfort and/or interferes with your daily activities, you should consult with a professional who will evaluate your case and offer you the guidelines adapted to your case and/or prescribe an appropriate treatment for your case. case. We are going to see 15 techniques and activities to work on sadness in adults.
Know your emotions
As we have already indicated, all emotions are necessary for human beings. You must understand that, although it is an unpleasant emotion, sadness is as necessary for us as joy.
Sadness accompanies us throughout life, although we sometimes experience it in a milder way and other times in a more intense way. Rather than getting rid of it or thinking about how to overcome and control sadness, we must learn to manage it.
Identify your sadness
Do you know how sadness manifests itself? Emotions have a physiological correlate, therefore, when we are sad we can experience sensations such as feeling a knot in your stomach, feeling tightness in your chest, etc. Look for where and how you are feeling your emotion, locate what changes you have noticed that may be related to your sadness. How to remove the lump in your throat due to sadness? We will see it below.
Accept sadness
Reiterating what we have already discussed in other sections, sadness will accompany us throughout our lives. We must accept that feeling sad is as normal as feeling happy.
We live in a society in which pleasant emotions are highly rewarded and unpleasant ones are punished and/or censored. , because being sad is part of being human, it is inherent to him.
Search and try to understand the cause of your sadness
In many cases we can find the cause of our sadness: the boss has scolded us, we have had a fight with a friend, your roommate is moving, etc. Knowing the cause will help you accept your emotion and will give it meaning.
You must keep in mind that sometimes we can feel sad as a result of a biological imbalance. In these cases the cause may not be so obvious.
Find the message of your emotion
If you wonder how to overcome sadness, you should know that the first step to managing it is to listen to it. All emotions provide us with a message and they move us to action. Look for what message sadness may be giving you at this moment.
For example, if we feel sad because we had a fight with a friend, our emotion may be telling us that we should seek reconciliation. Another example may be one in which sadness tells us that we should not go to a party to which we have been invited.
Rate the message
Once we have identified what message our sadness is giving us, we must assess whether the message is appropriate and whether we pay attention to it or not. In the examples in the previous section we can listen to him and go in search of our friend to reconcile, but we can ignore him and go to the party, for example.
Pay attention to your thoughts
It is possible that your sadness is being caused, aggravated, or mediated by the thoughts you are experiencing.
In the same way, Emotions can interfere with our thoughts and cause biases. For example, we may think that we have had a really bad day and only negative things have happened to us because late in the day we argued with a colleague, but it has really been a good day and the only negative event has been this last one.
Set moments to think
In relation to the previous point, it is possible that your sadness is being caused by a worry that you cannot make disappear from your head and, however, you know that it is neither beneficial for you nor will it help you in any way.
Establish “junk times”, that is, moments in which you are going to deal with said thoughts and/or concerns. It is not about avoiding the thought, but about reorganizing it in your agenda so that it does not interfere with your daily activity and dedicating yourself to it. a limited time.
Lean on your social network
One of the functions of sadness, at a social level, is to request or demand help from others. Biologically we are prepared to survive individually and prepared to perpetuate the survival of the species.
In addition to carrying out pleasant activities with your loved ones, you can also share your worries, your problems or your sadness. You may even share some of the concerns, problems or emotions.
Do pleasant activities
It is important that you identify those tasks that give you satisfaction so that you experience more pleasant emotions and obtain positive reinforcement. All of this will help you cushion the impact of the most unpleasant emotions.
Do physical exercise
There are studies that relate physical exercise with a improvement in mood, even in a single session of physical exercise, as is the study by Bonet, J.; Parrado, E. and Capdevila, L. (2017). Carrying out physical exercise, which has an impact on our mood.
Furthermore, sadness can be accompanied by anxious symptoms. Doing sports or physical exercise is an excellent way to help us feel more relaxed.
Take care of your diet
Some foods seem to produce a improvement in mood. In this regard, there are studies, such as those collected in the review by Ontiveros Márquez, M. (2016), that associate diets and depressive problems.
Examples of foods that have been related to a preventive effect on depression have been omega 3 acids, magnesium, zinc or even natural plants such as Grass of San Juan.
Maintain good sleep habits
Sleep habits are important and help keep biological rhythms regulated. Have adequate clength and quality of sleep contributes to physical and mental well-being.
Some tips related to sleep hygiene may be:
- Maintain regular hours.
- Take care of the environment of the room where you rest: keep it clean and tidy.
- Do not consume stimulating substances such as coffee or tobacco before going to sleep.
- Don’t have heavy dinners and don’t go to sleep right after dinner.
- Avoid light stimuli at bedtime.
- Go to bed only when you are going to sleep.
In this article you can see.
Establish routines
In relation to the previous point, establishing routines will not only improve your sleep rhythm and biological rhythms, but will also maintain an order in your day to day. This will also allow you to organize and manage your time in the best way.
Seek professional help
If the sadness is so intense as to cause you a intense discomfort and/or begins to interfere with your activities everyday life, seek professional help who can assess your particular case and design an appropriate intervention.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to How to manage sadnesswe recommend that you enter our category.
References
- Bonet, J.; Parrado, E. and Capdevila, L. (2017). Acute effects of physical exercise on mood and HRV. International Journal of Medicine and Sciences of Physical Activity and Sports, 17 (65) pp. 85-100.
- Ontiveros Márquez, M. (2016). Depression and diet quality: literature review. Archives of Medicine, 12 (1). doi:10.3823/1282
Bibliography
- Palmero, F. and Fernández-Abascal, EG (2002) Basic emotions II (anger, sadness and disgust). In Palmero, F., Fernández-Abascal, Chóliz, M. and Martínez-Sánchez, F. (2002) Psychology of motivation and emotion. Madrid: McGraw-Hill/Interamericana.