Metaphysical 'Cures' For What Ails Us
The Healing Power Of Sadness
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B Y   S T E V E N   E.   H O D E S,   M. D.

SADNESS IS A UNIVERSAL HUMAN EMOTION, a part of every day living. Although many of us view it as a dark cloud that should be avoided and denied, I believe sadness brings a gift of healing. Acknowledging our own sadness can be a crucial step in the healing process itself.

I can assure you, this is not something I learned in my traditional medical training! In fact, physicians are encouraged to avoid emotions - ours, our patients, and their families - like the plague. However, time and experience - almost 30 years in medical practice - have taught me that sadness can be a doorway to transformation.

What is sadness, really? Is it a fact, or an emotion? Most of us have experienced it at one time of another - in times of illness, loss, fear, stress, disappointment - as an emotional state brought on by certain circumstances. There are some whose lives are on the perpetual edge of sadness. They feel it lurking around every corner, crouching in the shadows. Some wear sadness like a second skin, or at times feel it sweeping over them like a suffocating wave. Even among those who appear outwardly upbeat and happy, it is always present, a vaguely perceived mist off in the distance.

Healing means 'to make whole' and sadness would seem to render one fragmented and frustrated. Especially since it can lead to a vicious cycle in which sadness leads to self-pity and further sadness and dis-ease.

Kabbalah provides a compelling metaphor that can be applied in daily life: All human beings are fragmented - yet this is no accident. In fact the entire universe is imperfect, fragmented and in need of repair and healing. As human beings we are not expected to be perfect, only participate in the healing of ourselves and the world. Healing, from this vantage point, becomes the journey toward wholness.

Buddhists recognize suffering is a universal human experience, and that sadness is not punishment. Rather, it is cue from our body, mind and soul that we need to take a moment to do a reality check of our emotional state and get to the source of the feelings. Just as physical pain is necessary to alert us that our body needs immediate attention, sadness serves the same function for our emotional self. Sadness can help us diagnose our emotional ailments. Therefore, rather than deny sadness, we should welcome it as a gift for healing.

Just think of the last time your felt sad. Did you want to retreat to your bed, to lie down, to sleep? Did you want to meditate or go for a walk? How many of us actually give ourselves permission to do that? We may think of that as escapism or being wimpy. Instead many of us react by distracting ourselves with more 'doings' - work, play, sex, drugs can become a way of avoiding facing our problems. Rather than just 'do' something, we should look within and 'be there' with our sadness.

Dr. Steve's Prescriptions:

We need not hide from sadness if we understand that it is offering us opportunities to grow on a deeply emotional and spiritual level.

© 2008 Steven E. Hodes, M.D.