In this week’s Mind Body Connection Series, I take a close look at the meaning of sadness within the context of the power column. One of the most important distinctions to be made is between trauma and sadness. I give to examples of recent sadness in my own experience that show that feeling sad can also be understood as an arrival somewhere good! Each sadness has a potential correlate in your life that can signal something good, such as missing someone meaning you are connected or a sadness signaling a new insight.

In the Power Column, we work to understand the central, defining characteristics of each person and their experiences and a huge part of the goal comes in accepting the fullness of the trauma we experience. Once this is accepted, sadness is now a real option, rather than grief, loss, mourning, and a sense that life is irrevocably damaged. In this way, sadness can be seen as the actual endpoint of trauma and the beginning of having sad things get processed just like any other emotion.