The Importance Of Sadness: Susan Piver, The Huffington Post

Susan Piver writes in The Huffington Post that allowing yourself to feel sad when you are sad could change the world.

“When you look out at this world, what you see will make you very, very sad. This is good. You are seeing clearly. Genuine sadness gives rise, spontaneously, naturally, completely, to the wish — no, the longing — to be of benefit to others. When your wish to help is rooted in love (i.e. sadness), it is effective. There is no question.”

Susan says if you open your heart to the sadness you feel, you will then be able to “lay claim to your brand of helpful activity, whether it takes the form of activism, leadership, charitable work, making art, prayer or simple, basic kindness to all.” Susan is promoting meditation to help you relax with the discomfort of sadness and stay with it. She is talking about the importance of sadness.

As long as you are not stuck in sadness, you can use it as creative ground from which to activate yourself. But what else can we do to help us move into action and not get stuck in our emotions?

A powerful way to avoid getting stuck is to change your language.  This means changing how we speak to ourselves (as well as to others). How we use language can remind us that we each have our own unique interpretation of what is happening and thus we make our own meaning of the events taking place.  Perhaps we make ourselves sad, feel despair, hopeless or fearful while someone else is feeling inspired, compassionate, strong and hopeful around the same event.

Live Conscious offers us a unique use of language, which we call Perception Language, that helps us become fully aware of what we are feeling in the present moment. When I use Perception Language, I take ownership of what I am feeling and realize that I am not victim to these feelings.  When I recognize that I paralyze myself, make myself feel helpless, or despair myself, I also realize I have the power to feel compassion and then to take some kind of action.

As Susan Piver points out, if I allow myself to feel my sadness, I can utilize my feelings to then take some creative action. And using Perception Language will help me to un-stick myself from my emotions and empower myself.

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