Most of us feel sadness or depression at times. Sadness is just a normal emotion to the loss or life challenges that can be faded away with time. If the feeling of sadness intensified along with hopelessness, helplessness, and worthlessness – it lasts for many days to weeks, it may be more than sadness. When this sadness is not temporary, you should be aware that the danger of depression may be on the prospect.
“Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not, and often we call a man cold when he is only sad.” (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
Are you the one who is suffering from such a condition? The best step is to take a step toward betterment with your help. Here are a few useful ways to overcome sadness and depressed feelings. Let us have a look for each way separately.
Self-Care to overcome sadness
1. Eat healthily
Poor diet during the period of sadness and depression only makes matters worse. The choice of food is in your hand. Eat food that promotes you’re feeling well. Studies have shown that higher protein intake can boost the body’s alertness and help improve mood and helps you overcome sadness. It would be best to add fresh fruits, vegetables, complex carbs (rice, beans, and lentils) into your meals. Try to avoid sugar as it may provide temporary high but worsen conditions later.
2. Do Exercise
You are feeling blue! You may not feel like getting out! Research suggests that if you exercise regularly, you may be less likely to become depressed. Try to aim for at least 20 minutes to engage in moderate physical activity.
3. Get quality sleep
Sadness and depression are also associated with the interruption of sleeping habits. Do you feel interrupted sleep patterns? Try to establish scheduled sleep time and limited activities before bed. It is essential to get eight hours of sleep at night to fight sadness and depression.
4. Take a bath
Sounds childish? Even taking a bath can help. Physical warmth has a soothing effect. A warm bath or hot shower helps the body to feel relax. It soothes feelings of sadness.
5. Get dressed
Putting on one’s best clothes is not significantly linked with going out for a party or so. To make up yourself improves the mood, and you will start feeling good about yourself and the world.
6. Lightening
Lightening means exposure to sunlight. The rays of the sun bring new hope in life. Exposure to natural sunlight elevates mood. Open up your room curtains and blinds and try to spend time outdoors in natural settings.
7. Hydration
Dehydration affects the functioning of the brain to slow and run improperly. It impacts susceptibility to and ability to overcome sadness and depression. Start drinking water up to 8-12 glasses a day.
Distracting yourself to overcome sadness
8. Go outside
Yes, despite your utter, brutal sadness, the world is going on as if nothing happened. As if all is well. And yes, soon you will be one of those people walking around like everything is fine because everything will be fine.
9. Talk to someone
Friend, therapist, family member. Please do not try to suppress your feelings; it only worsens the situation. Talk to someone you can trust who will listen and comfort you, not try to judge or fix you.
10. Reading
Take a temporary leave from reality and bury yourself in one of your favorite books. Many wise people have been through what you’re going through, and they made it through to the other side to tell about it.
11. Cry it out
Allow yourself to be sad. Denying sad feelings may force them underground, where they can do more damage with time. Cry if you feel like it. Notice if you feel relief after tears stop.
12. Write
Dealing with sadness is a little bit like detoxing – if you hold it in, it will fester and turn into something worse like sickness or depression. Get it out. Put words to it. Or pictures. Or music… Write good or bad whatever you can.
13. Listen to Music (Dream Baby Dream)
This song’s message is a perfect encouragement to start the process of healing and moving on and imagining a future when all this sadness you’re feeling at this moment will be a distant memory. By listening to motivational music or poetry, you start feeling the ability to overcome sadness and fight depression. Thanks to Bruce Springsteen for such a motivational piece of writing. Few lyrics are quoted here:
Dream baby dream
We gotta keep the light burning
Come open up your heart
Come on darling and dry your eyes
Yeah I just wanna see you smile
14. Watch good movies or drama (F.R.I.E.N.D.S)
A good movie can also provide a wonderful distraction from emotional pain or a place to put your unshed tears. FRIENDS is an American television sitcom. Friends show is not only about friendship. It has everything, love, relationships, laughs, commitment, and life struggles; hence, it is a mix of emotions.
Changing the way of life to fight sadness and depression
15. Set goals
Something special happens the moment the paper meets the pen, and we write down our goals. Our brain chemistry changes, neurons fire, hormones are deployed, and we start thinking about achieving these set goals.
16. Take on responsibilities
Are you running away from your tasks? When you’re depressed, you may want to pull back from life and give up your home and work responsibilities. Don’t. Staying involved and having daily responsibilities can help you maintain a lifestyle that can help counter depression. They ground you and give you a sense of accomplishment.
17. Move on
Pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and get on with things. Before you know it, you’ll be happy again. After all, you have so many things in your life to be happy about. Appreciate those things, and suddenly your sadness will feel smaller, and your happiness will grow larger.
18. Don’t give up
Depression can make you want to hide away from the world and disappear. It’s okay to take some time out but give yourself a time limit and then do something productive to improve your mood. Depression can be well managed, and there can be a wonderful life beyond depression. Hang in there and keep the faith.
19. Use of touch to overcome sadness
Research has shown that touch therapies can help some people overcome sadness and depression, lower the stress hormone cortisol, and increase the feel-good hormone oxytocin.
20. Yoga
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21. Mindfulness training
Mindfulness is based on acknowledging your experiences and accepting them without judging them or yourself. Research has shown that practicing mindfulness can change how your brain responds to sadness. It can also help you recover from sadness faster. Because mindfulness focuses on remaining in the present moment, it can help you avoid rumination.
22. Meditation
Several studies have shown that mindfulness meditation can reduce your brain’s responses to negative emotional stimuli. Sit in a comfortable place and make yourself relaxed. Choose one aspect of breathing to focus on and focus your concentration on that element. Inhale through the nose and exhale from the mouth. Notice sensations that you feel during the whole process.
Staying Positive to eliminate sadness
23. Acknowledge your feelings
Sadness is normal and can even be healthy. Try to acknowledge your emotions without judging yourself for them. It’s easy to think, ‘this isn’t a big deal, why am I so sad about it?’ Instead, accept your emotions for what they are. This will help you manage them.
24. Smile is a good way to overcome sadness
Smiles that engage your eye muscles, as well as those near your mouth, have the most potent positive effect on your mood. So if you are feeling sad, try to smile. Even if you don’t feel like it at first, it may help you feel more optimistic.
25. Focus on the good
Let us focus on the good things that we have in life. Focus on the things that make you happy. Start getting rid of what is holding you back or bringing you down. Tell yourself you have a right to lead a fulfilling life.
“When you’re focused upon how good the good is, the good get better.” (Abraham Hicks)
26. Forgive others
When we hold a grudge, we are the ones that feel the anger. We are angry with the person who is probably merrily going about their business, completely oblivious to your feelings. Don’t allow others to have this power over you. They may have caused you grief in the past; try not to let that grief to continue – it only affects you, not them. Lighten the emotional load, and you will improve your mood and help you to overcome depression.
27. Visualize happy memories
One of the best visualization techniques for combatting stress is to visualize a happy memory. When you do this, be in a comfortable position in a quiet place. Close your eyes and create a blank canvas in your mind. You want to visualize every detail of the memory.
28. Hope for the best
Hope is associated with many positive outcomes, including greater happiness, better academic achievement, and even a lowered risk of death. It’s a necessary ingredient for getting through tough times, of course, but also for meeting everyday goals.
Psychological therapies
29. Seek physical and medical care
Sadness and depression are caused by many personal, social, or psychological factors. A mental health professional can help you understand and navigate your emotions. Treatment that includes psychotherapy in addition to antidepressant medication is often more effective than medication alone.
30. Psychoeducation
It is an intervention with systematic, structured, and didactic knowledge transfer for an illness and its treatment, integrating emotional and motivational aspects to enable patients to cope with the disease and improve its treatment adherence and efficacy.
31. Cognitive therapy
Cognitive therapy is a treatment process that helps patients correct false self-beliefs that lead to certain moods and behaviors. The fundamental principle behind cognitive therapy is that thought precedes a mood and that both are interrelated with a person’s environment, physical reaction, and subsequent behavior.
32. Electroconvulsive therapy
ECT is a procedure done under general anesthesia, in which small electric currents are passed through the brain, intentionally triggering a brief seizure. ECT seems to cause changes in brain chemistry that can quickly reverse symptoms of certain mental health conditions. It is applied only when the illness is very severe and cannot be treated otherwise.
Moving forward with Psychotherapy
Fortunately, Ahealo.com offers a global ePsychotherapy platform that allows clients to book an online anonymous private appointment with a broad skill range of psychotherapists at an affordable cost and desired schedule.
Alternatively, if you need to seek psychotherapy, be sure to check out web.ahealo.com. Ahealo is an online psychotherapy platform with a diverse range of psychotherapists for many different fields of mental challenges. Ahealo provides ePsychotherapy at an affordable price, confidential, convenient (through a web page 1-1 private video call), and at your comfortable schedule.
With these options, we believe your sadness issues can be resolved soon.
Take care and stay well.
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