Sadness

• Bach Flower Remedies: Gentian [discouraged], Wild Rose [apathy].
• California Flower Essences: Borage [discouraged, disheartened], Yerba Santa [deep sadness].

Quotes

A main function for sadness is to help adjust to a significant loss, such as the death of someone close or a major disappointment. Sadness brings a drop in energy and enthusiasm for life’s activities, particularly diversions and pleasures, and, as it deepens and approaches depression, slows the body’s metabolism. This introspective withdrawal creates the opportunity to mourn a loss or frustrated hope, grasp its consequences for one’s life, and, as energy returns, plan new beginnings. This loss of energy may well have kept saddened and – and vulnerable – early humans close to home, where they were safer. (Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence, p.7)

Russell [Helen Russell] talks about sadness being a “problem-solving” emotion. Research from the University of New South Wales shows that it can improve our attention to detail, increase perseverance, promote generosity and make us more grateful for what we’ve got. “It’s the emotion that helps us connect to others,” she adds. “We’re nicer, better people in some ways when we are sad.”
(Jamie Waters, The Guardian, posted and accessed 24 April 2022)

Walking away from a closed door
Why do you believe happiness should come in the way you expect it to? You are presented with so many possibilities! But instead of noticing them, you cling to your own idea of happiness. You hope a door is going to open. . . but there it is, still closed. Rather than lamenting before this closed door, remind yourself that others may open nearby. . . or even just a small window. This is how disappointments can prove useful: they lead you to discover things you would have never stumbled upon otherwise.
(O.M. Aïvanhov, Sparks of Light on Our Path, p.13)

Resources

• Does crying actually make you feel good? (BBC, undated).