A Hug for Sadness
Hello Beautiful,
How many of you have seen the movie “Inside Out?” What did you think about the movie?
I watched the movie a few months ago. It left me with a sad, heavy feeling. I think that is because I can relate to having the feeling of sadness take over when some kind of change comes and takes away people or things that I love.
This past weekend, I had a chance to meet Joy and Sadness at Epcot in Disney World in Orlando, Florida. I know they are not real, just people dressed up in costumes acting the part that those two characters would play. I did not necessarily want to meet them because they are not on my top fav Disney character lists and the movie is not one of my favorites either. But I did it anyways.
After waiting for a long time in line, it was finally my turn to meet them. Joy was so happy and jumpy and super fun to be around. Sadness has a permanent frown on her face and she walks around hanging her head low. I immediately wanted to fix the frown on Sadness’ face, even though it is a costume and cannot be fixed. Why did it upset me so much to see a frown? Maybe it is because I can associate with it. Maybe it is because I know that the sadness can be replaced with joy because I have experienced the transformation myself.
As a natural instinct, I grabbed Sadness and gave her a huge hug, trying to hug away the pain. When I did that, she grabbed on to me as well. She did not want to let go. When I did free myself from her embrace, she grabbed my hand and held it through the rest of the photo sess and meeting of the characters.
It reminded me of the many times that I have experienced deep sadness in my own life. There are times when we need to be sad. We need to cry. We need to express those feelings and those emotions. It is healthy to do this. However, for me at least, when I give a hug to sadness, or embrace the sadness, it has a tendency to grab on to me, just like she did at Disney and it does not want to let go. When it is time to let go of the sadness, the sadness does not necessarily want to let go of me.
What I am trying to say is, embrace the sadness that comes with certain hard situations. But do not let sadness hang on for longer than she should. Go through the crying and grieving and then move on. Allow yourself to live again, to breathe again and to smile again. Life is too short to remain in sadness for longer than is needed.
I encourage you to think of one thing that you ENJOY doing that makes you happy when sadness has been hanging on to you for too long. Share it with us :) One thing that makes me happy is spending time creating something beautiful, whether it is by drawing, writing or painting.
I hope this inspires you, beautiful. Do not be afraid to hug sadness but do not let her hang on to you for longer than she needs to because I can guarantee you that she will.
XOXO,
Karissa Hagemeister
To read more, check out my blog www.bringingbeautifulback.com