Dec 29, 2021
Sorrow, Sadness and Stress — What is The Difference
Sorrow brings depth; sadness is avoidable; and stress is unnecessary. While sorrow can lead to deep experiences in life, sadness and stress reduce your happiness.
Sorrow
By sorrow I mean grief. Many life situations can bring sorrow to you. Some events or losses leave a void in your heart. An emptiness. Say a loss of a loved one. To feel sorrow or grief in such times is not only normal, it is important.
I think one of the wisdoms our society is fast forgetting is to provide enough space for people to grieve.
People who have experienced sorrow in a healthy deep way, become more caring towards other people in their lives. Some people even become caring towards strangers. They become mature to guide young ones who are lost and looking for answers. A sense of wisdom is apparent in their guidance.
Some times an experience of grief gives some people such a deep knowledge of life that they do not grieve at their own losses anymore. But they relate to other peoples’ grief and sorrow. Such people have achieved the purpose of their human birth.
Sorrow takes you deep.
Sadness
Sadness is mostly stupidity. If you are sad, it is because you are distracted; because you are not focusing on your growth. You are thinking too much about other people.
You get easily distracted by social media. You get drawn towards controversial news. You binge watch Netflix.
Some people get sad because they are too ambitious and do not accept beauty of life around them.
Sadness also emerges from too many desires. If you keep running around to fulfill all your desires and not live your life with a sense of purpose, you will feel sad.
If a sadness emerges in you it is an early sign that you are running away from your purpose. If you continue to stay sad due to a compulsive habit, then you are stuck. You will end up face suffering.
Sometimes you are not clear about your purpose. You are searching, lost or maybe totally unaware. Then you will continue to feel sad, thinking it is normal.
But all of this is avoidable. How? Let’s first finish up with Stress.
Stress
Stress is an unnecessary calamity in your life.
People often equate pressure to stress. But that is wrong. Pressure can be useful as it pushes you to act. But a stressful reaction to pressure is what creates the problem.
You should take every opportunity to get out of stress. Never ever idolize stress. It will make you stupid.
Getting rid of stress is not escapism. It is sign of a maturity that you value your life, your time and your relationships.
Stress is like high school drugs scene — everybody is doing it and nobody is talking about it. Rather it is even worse, people are telling each other how bad stress is, but they don’t want to acknowledge they are stressed.
Mainly because acknowledging stress makes you look weak. The truth of the matter is 95% of workforce in the world is stressed. From top to bottom. Even the millionaires who are enjoying free money are stressed.
Stress destroys enthusiasm, entrepreneurship, peace, work culture, happiness, relationships & families.
Have you noticed many times people want to grieve; but they cannot do so because of the stress at workplace? This is unfortunate.
So What Can Be Done
If you want to grieve for a loss but are not finding time & space because of the stressful patch in life, meditate.
Do 20 minutes of meditation every day. If possible, do more. First it will remove layers of stress. Then it will create a healthy & safe space for you to grieve. Daily meditation will give you enough time with your self. Let the tears roll. Let your heart soften.
Many people who are unable to grieve or bear a loss, latch on to addictions. We must realize that healthy grieving is important for a human being. So meditate.
To overcome sadness, meditate. If your compulsive behavior is making you sad again and again, then make it a point that you meditate everyday. You will be able to resolve your situation.
And definitely meditate to get out of stress quickly. Never let stress linger. It is of no use to you. Stress blocks your emotions and ability to reason.
Best remedy?
Don’t wait for stress to arise and then meditate. Instead meditate everyday. Then even if stress arises, your daily practice of meditation will keep cleaning it out for you. And if you are persistent, there can come a time when you do not feel stressed at all.
If you are interesting in learning about medical research around chronic stress then read this article.
http://thepragmaticseeker.com/meditation/can-meditation-cure-chronic-stress/
It is a long article that covers medical research on chronic stress and impact of meditation and mindfulness interventions. It also brings out with examples how chronic stress usually goes undetected, unreported and undiagnosed.
