Being Sad Is Not Bad

The other day, I felt it creeping in… that familiar heaviness… the kind of sadness that doesn’t come with an obvious reason but that settles into your body and mind anyway and wraps itself around you like a weighted blanket. My mind did what it always does in these moments—it started searching for answers.

Why do I feel like this?
What’s wrong?
What did I do?
How do I fix it?

It’s a pattern I know well—the urge to analyze, dissect, and solve my emotions. To many parts of my mind, sadness is a problem to be eliminated and resolved (ASAP) rather than an experience to be had.

But then, something different happened…

I took a deep breath. And a simple thought surfaced. It was so clear that it felt like a truth I had always known but had somehow forgotten:

Being sad is not bad.

And just like that, something shifted.

Sadness Isn’t a Mistake

We live in a world that treats sadness (and all “negative” emotions, for that matter) like the biggest of big problems to avoid, to push down, to push through, as if it inherently means that something that something is wrong. But what if sadness isn’t a problem? What if it doesn’t mean that something is badly going wrong? What if it’s just part of the rhythm of being alive… a part of the rhythm that suggests that something is actually right?

Because here’s the thing that I learn. Over and over and over again. Sadness isn’t bad. It isn’t a sign that you’ve failed, that you’re broken, or that you need to figure out how to “get back to normal.” It’s a feeling—a natural response to being human. And when we stop fighting it, something incredible happens: it moves through us instead of getting stuck inside us and reveals some of the most fascinating, heartfelt things.

Sadness isn’t bad. It isn’t a sign that you’ve failed, that you’re broken, or that you need to figure out how to “get back to normal".

Letting Sadness Exist Without Judgment

When I let go of the need to fix my sadness, it softened. When I took a breath and said, ‘Okay, I can be with this. It isn’t too big for me to hold… to be with,’ it no longer felt unbearable. It was just there, like a quiet visitor coming to say “hello”.

So often, the hardest part of sadness isn’t the sadness itself—it’s the resistance to it. The stories we attach to it. The way we label it as something wrong instead of just something that is.

But what if we met sadness with curiosity instead of judgment? What if, instead of asking, ‘How do I make this go away?’ we quietly asked, ‘What if I just let this be here for now?’

So often, the hardest part of sadness isn’t the sadness itself—it’s the resistance to it.

A Different Way to Hold Sadness

I’m not saying sadness is easy. But I am saying it’s absolutely, deeply, and inherently okay.

It’s okay to feel heavy sometimes.
It’s okay to have days (or even weeks) when the world feels a little dim.
It’s okay to let sadness sit beside you without rushing to push it away.

Because emotions are like waves—they rise, they peak, and they fall. And when we let them come and go, rather than pushing against, resisting, or shaming them, they actually don’t last forever.

So the next time sadness shows up, try this with me:

Place a hand on your heart.
Take a breath.
And remind yourself:

Being sad is not bad.

It’s just a feeling. A moment. A part of you asking to be seen and felt.

And you? You’re not doing anything wrong. You’re just being human.

Phew. Take a sigh of relief if that feels good.

Let’s Be Human. Together.

None of us have it all figured out. We’re all just showing up, doing our best, feeling our way through the messiness of being alive. And sometimes, what we need most isn’t to fix ourselves, but to be with others who get it—who are also figuring it out, who are also sitting with their joys and their struggles, their questions and their hopes.

That’s why I created Heart Share Circles—a space to simply be. To bring your humanness, your tenderness, your truth. To be seen and held in it, without needing to explain it away or make it prettier than it is.

If you want a place where you can just show up as you are—where vulnerability is welcomed and being human is enough—you’re invited.

Click here to join us. We’d love to have you.