Do you ever have those days when no matter how hard you try for a period of time you are just sad and somber? You can’t seem to break out of it and then just like that in a flash it just moves on. Sometimes you can’t really pinpoint the reason for it and there are times when the reason is obvious, but it seems to come and go at a whim.

For me that seems to happen about once every 4-6 weeks.  For about a two day period I wake up feeling down and when there is really no obvious cause for it. I try to shake myself out of it, but it continues for about 24-36 hours and then as quickly as it came in it passes.

This has been happening to me for some time and when it first started happening it startled me. I couldn’t understand why it was happening regularly and why it always seemed to come within a certain time interval. However, as time went on I learned to embrace that time for what it was worth and put it to good use.

Most of the time I am pretty positive about life and do what I can to nurture it and make it the best I can be. Week after week I go and go until I get to the point where I feel like my body and soul just need a rest. I have come to learn that these periods that happen for me are my body and mind’s way of telling me to stop and slow down. By enduring those somber periods where I don’t want to seem to do anything, I am being provided a time to just chill and recharge for a period sometimes devoid of emotion. I think when my body feels like it has sufficiently recharged, the mood passes and life moves on.

It is also during these times that I deal with the things that make me sad.  It is almost as if my brain is thinking that I am sad anyway, so why not deal with all the issues that contribute to sadness and see them for what they are and let them go. It prevents me from having to do so for the others days when life is good.

The point of this story is that it’s ok to be somber and sad for short period of time. I feel like it is a healthy time to deal with the things that adversely affect life if you use the time wisely. It is when the sadness finds it way into weeks, months and even years that it becomes a problem where one might ultimately need a little help to address it.

So, the next time that you feel sad and somber, put that emotion to good use.  Use it as a time to deal with the things in your life that are contributing to making you feel that way.  Take a good long look at them, work through them and let them go. It will make all the other days of life that much brighter. Sadness is a normal human emotion and yes, it is normal to occasionally be sad.

Have a great day and remember to be the reason someone smiles.

Ron