• Lamentation
    by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
    Written in response to the 2003 war on Iraq, this piece about the wisdom of weeping offers perennially fitting readings, quotations, and practices.
  • Blues Traveler
    by Sally Kempton
    Left to feed on itself, sadness can turn into depression, and it messes with your immune system — yet sorrow can also trigger soft-heartedness, humility, and other profound spiritual emotions.
  • 5 Cures for Sadness — How You Can Be Happier
    by Hope Wilbanks
    Ways to pull yourself out of a slump include getting out of the house, reframing your thoughts, diverting your attention, calling a friend, and donating time to a worthy cause.
  • Four Ways Sadness May Be Good for You
    by Joseph P. Forgas
    Scientific research is building a case that sadness has some adaptive functions, and so should be accepted as an important component of our emotional repertoire.
  • The Gifts of Sadness
    by Karla McLaren
    Sadness is a wonderful emotion that helps us let go of things that aren’t working for us … such as tension, muscle tightness, anxiety, and “soldiering on” behaviors.
  • The Importance of Sadness
    by Susan Piver
    Meditation teaches you to be present to genuine sadness, which gives rise, spontaneously, naturally, completely, to the longing to be of benefit to others.
  • Myopic Misery: The Financial Cost of Sadness
    by Wray Herbert
    Evidence is mounting that sadness triggers an unconscious desire to reap rewards as soon as possible — even when this urgency comes at a very real cost, in dollars and cents.
  • Seven Instant Mood Boosters
    by Deobrah Kotz
    From setting your body in motion to turning on the tunes, these suggestions help you meet feelings of exhaustion, hopelessness, and anxiety — mild sadness — with happy actions.
  • The Virtue of Sadness
    by Allan V. Horwitz and Jerome C. Wakefield
    Sadness almost certainly exists for good evolutionary reasons: attracting social support after a loss, protecting us from aggression after defeats, and promoting self-repair.
  • Why It's Good to Feel Sad
    by Atalanta Beaumont
    We humans need the full range of our emotions to be in working order so that we can respond appropriately to our own needs and those of others.
  • Writing Your Way Through Sadness
    by Amber Lea Starfire
    Journal writing prompts — such as word associations, reflections on the past, reinterpreting events — can help you identify and work through core causes of your sadness.