How can I stop felling sad?

It must be hard to feel as though you are all alone from family and friends and even pets. It can also feel as though you have no one, but I would encourage to challenge that thought. Are there people or individuals in your life that you feel you can go to? Are there people or individuals that you feel comfortable and safe with to just hangout and enjoy each other's company? If there are some individuals that you feel would be trustworthy around you, try to engage in peer activity. Allowing yourself to go out and socialize with others can help yourself feel less alone. Surrounding yourself with others even in different ways such as socializing on social media or chat groups in order to still have connections with others. Making connections with others can help with that feeling of loneliness. Of course this can be hard and difficult when feeling as though you don't want to do anything or feeling as though you can't get up and make yourself go out. I would encourage you to do so in order to socialize again, this is important.

Some other ways to help cope with an overwhelming feeling of sadness is keeping in mind of how you talk with yourself. Stoping to think if you talk to yourself in a positive way or a negative way can impact how you feel about yourself. This is a task that you would have to be mindful in trying to implement. Take a moment to reflect on what you say to yourself. If you find yourself being hard or mean to yourself, try to stop that at the moment and be mindful of your words. Even implementing this simple task a few days out of the week can help to create a positive habit. A positive habit if implemented correctly can become automatic.  For example if you start each morning by stating to yourself what you are grateful for your mood can be changed throughout the day. If you start to give yourself a compliment such as a hard worker or physical compliment you start to see yourself as valuable. You will start to believe in what you are saying to yourself. You will start to slowly change that mindset and create positive thinking. These are a few things that can be implemented on your own, or what you can do to start doing before you work with a therapist.

When you are alone and have little or no contact with family, one way of helping you feel better is also reflecting on happier memories, being able to look at photos, or remembering a time when you were feeling happy or you can remember a time you were laughing with those around you.

Having a safe space is also important. A safe space is a place where you can go to feel comforted and know that you will not be bothered in this spot. For example, a safe space can be your bed, a place in your room, a place in your home, or somewhere outside of your home such as the ocean view, a special park that brings you joy, or a coffee shop. So it is a place where you know you can go and know that you will start to feel at ease. Once you identify your safe space, try to enhance it by creating an experience of where once you are there you know you can relax, unwind, not think too much about what may be bugging you or holding you back. If you do not currently have a safe space, you can always create one. Just think of a spot in your home where you feel as though no one can bother your peace in that area you choose. You can then get creative with your space by adding visuals that you feel you resonate with or visuals that empower you or make you feel like you can visualize a safe spot.

Also when feeling overwhelmed with feelings of sadness, there can be other emotions linked to this sadness, so allowing yourself to even write out how you're feeling can help to create a sense of peace within yourself. Finding your own peace and defining your peace can also help with easing that sadness.

Unfortunately we cannot control the struggle that we face, but we can control how we want that struggle to make us feel. It may not feel like it at most times, but you are in control of how you feel and you are in control of how you allow outside factors to make you feel. The circle of control is another aspect to look at for yourself. Remembering that you can only control yourself in terms of how you want things to affect you. It is not easy but reminding yourself that you have the power to control how you feel can help to ease that pain.

I want to end with giving you a grounding technique when feeling sad and overwhelmed. This is very simple and easy and can be used at home or outside of the home so it is discreet but also empowers you to know you can get through this. First ground yourself by sitting down or lying down comfortably, next take notice of your body language and see if anything is tense and tight and try to move that muscle to relax it. Then take a moment to breathe in five times. These have to be with intention, meaning taking in one long breath, then slowly letting it out and counting to five. Do this exercise about five times or until you feel a bit more centered. This is not the all cure answer but I hope this allows you to one know you will be okay and two to take notice of your strengths.