October 13

Sadness is not an emotion that must be avoided at all costs, but rather embraced and noticed.   That is not to say that you should wallow in your misery, but if you are feeling sad, you should address, give it its due attention, and then move on.

I totally wallow.
Now, I am reasonably sure (right, Brie? she asked nervously) that I don't continually bombard my friends with my problems and bother them about it.  When I am sad about a certain problem, I constantly obsess about it, long after its solution.  I remember feeling so depressed about an embarrassing situation once, that I went five minutes without thinking about it, and was startled.  That's right, I was actually surprised that I was not thinking about it.  For five minutes.  Yikes...

My dad once gave me great advice on sadness.  He told me that if you are not going to be sad about whatever happened in fifteen years, why be sad about it for the next fifteen minutes? It is kind of embarrassing once you realize how minuscule the situation that you have been obsessing about is.  If you are extremely sad about something serious (a death, an accident, etc.) that is a different problem.  But if you are sad about something embarrassing remember: it's all about the story.
AMANDA

You definitely don't bombard us! That's what we're here for! :) I am very good at expressing sadness. That may sound odd. But I really know how to get into the melodramatic mood, if you know what I mean. I play dramatic/really sad music; I have albums on my iPod reserved especially for sad times (Billie Holiday's "Lady In Satin" is my stand-by). I let myself cry and I may even eat chocolate. Who am I kidding, I do that every day anyways.

That being said, I am pretty good at putting upsetting situations behind me fairly quickly and I let myself laugh about it. To get perspective I picture myself a few years from now. I would probably be very upset with myself if I spend all of my energy obsessing over every little upsetting thing that happens to me!

On my seventeenth birthday, I got up nice and early in the morning (it was a Saturday). I told my parents what I wanted to do and they agreed and said that the family would do what I wanted that day. I was so excited, and I picked out the perfect outfit and everything. My hopes were so high. They decided that we would stay home the whole day because my sisters didn't feel like going anywhere. On my birthday. I was devastated. I sat up in my room all day listening to Bob Dylan's album "Blood On The Tracks" and cried my little eyes out. But I got over it. Just as Amanda said, it is a story.

"Life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you respond to it." - Unknown
xx Brie