It’s okay to feel sad. Some days we’re happy, and on other days we feel sad. It’s a normal emotion, and you need to allow yourself to go through the sadness. Don’t mask it or shove it aside. It’ll do more damage if you keep it bottled up. Accept the emotion but don’t dwell on it or let it weigh you down all day. Prolonged sadness is harmful to your mental well-being. Do your best to outrun the gloomy days by engaging and occupying your mind with positive thoughts and challenging activities.
Here are a few indoor activities that will keep your mind busy as you go through sad days.
Indoor gardening
Gardening is good for our mental well-being. A meta-analysis review by ecologist Masashi Soga established that gardening improves physical, mental, and social health. Planting and tending to plants improves our mood, reduces stress, and inflates our self-esteem. Psychologists view gardening as an alternative method to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety. You don’t need an outdoor garden to reap these benefits. You can take gardening indoors. You’ll need a grow room or grow space, potting soil, a source of sunlight or grow lights, planters, humidifiers, watering cans, and plants. Grow herbs, low maintenance house plants, and a few high maintenance houseplants. If possible, choose a room that receives sufficient morning sun, or invest in low and high-watt grow lights if your home does not receive enough sunlight.
Paint the sadness away
We tend to squelch uncomfortable emotions instead of letting them loose. Don’t suppress the unhappy state. Let it out by applying some paint to a canvas or piece of paper. Art is a therapeutic way of expressing your emotions. It reduces stress by lowering cortisol levels. You let your emotions free each time you draw or paint. Forget the rules and your ability. Let the paint strokes guide you. You’d be surprised at the talent hidden behind your sadness.
Work it Out
When we’re sad, we lack the energy for our usual routines and feel like staying in bed all day. However, staying in bed will only prolong the sadness. So get moving. Working out will stimulate the brain to release serotonin and endorphins. Endorphins and serotonin are hormones that trigger a feel-good emotion that energizes you. Exercise also reduces cortisol levels. A burst of endorphins, serotonin release, and reduced cortisol levels turn a sad day into a day packed with positive emotions. Consider getting an exercise bike or treadmill to boost your motivation and make your workout sessions more rewarding.
Pour Your Sadness into a Journal
Embrace your sadness and write about it. Describe what you’re feeling and what triggered the gloominess. Writing, be it creative, reflective, or expressive, heals. It’s an outlet people use to let their emotions flow. Expressive writing has been shown to significantly reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. It is often used in therapeutic settings to help patients deal with mental health issues. The process of writing can help you regulate your emotions and gradually free yourself from sadness. So, give it a try. Write what you feel and do it as often as you can. It can be as simple as writing and rewriting the word sadness and letting it flow out of you.
Treat Yourself to a soothing soak
A soothing scented bath soak calms the nerves. This is an ideal indoor activity to regulate your moods. Many cultures use baths as a therapeutic practice to heal physical and mental ailments. A good soak is cheaper than a massage, and you can do it any time you want. On sad days, take the opportunity to soak in a warm scented bath, adding some Epsom salt and lavender oil to the water. Epsom salt relieves stress and stimulates the production of serotonin, which can act as a mood stabilizer. Bath bomb soaks can help you relax and put aside your worries for a while.
Wrapping Up
Sad days are normal. They are part of the usual ups and downs of life. Acknowledge and embrace it. Repressing it will negatively impact your mental well-being. Indulge yourself and your mind by giving these activities a try. They will keep you busy as you deal with the sadness. They’ll also keep you in touch with your inner self and emotions. Try them. They’re good for your mental health.
If you try these activities and still feel sad most of the time, you may have depression or other mood disorder. If that’s the case for you, it’s best to seek help from a mental health professional.
If you or someone you know experiences mental health issues, it is important to seek help from a qualified professional. Our Resource Specialist can help you find expert mental health resources to recover in your community. Contact us now for more information on this free service to our users.
About the Author: Scarlet is a sports enthusiast and athlete who is dedicated to living a healthy lifestyle. Her passion for sports encouraged her to join the Bikeberry team. One of the most important things that have helped her cope with his PTSD is biking. She’s also a writer who enjoys using a variety of topics to connect to various audiences and educate them about sports.
May Is Mental Health Month 2022
“Back to Basics”
May is Mental Health Month, a time to spread public awareness and education about mental health disorders and reflect on the impact of mental illness on individuals and their families.
The theme of this year’s Mental Health Month is “Back to Basics.” The goal this May is to provide foundational knowledge about mental health and mental health conditions and spread information about what people can do if their mental health is a cause for concern.
It is also a time to recognize and commit to changing the racial and economic inequities in our health care system, particularly with respect to mental health.
www.rtor.org and Laurel House are committed to the advancement of racial equity and social justice, and to making mental health services accessible to all.
Photo by Sanni Sahil on Unsplash
The opinions and views expressed in any guest blog post do not necessarily reflect those of www.rtor.org or its sponsor, Laurel House, Inc. The author and www.rtor.org have no affiliations with any products or services mentioned in the article or linked to therein. Guest Authors may have affiliations to products mentioned or linked to in their author bios.
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