Grief, Sadness, and Sorrow

        When we experience the death of a loved one, a tragedy that is presented in the news, or empathize with others’ pain, it is important to know what these emotions mean and why we experience these emotions in the first place. I believe that grief, sadness, and sorrow are simply our human way of coping with the instability of the natural world. Our world is full of accidents, surprises, and shocks, so I think it is important to dissect what these emotions really indicate and what our tears signify. When we take a closer look at the emotions we experience and feel we will understand how our feelings can be deceptive, and how truth can be more comforting. I will take a closer look at grief, sadness, and sorrow, three emotions most of us have felt at some point in our lives. 

         Grief is the overwhelming shadow of darkness that clouds our vision, thoughts, and actions because of its powerful and overbearing nature. Grief is the emotion that we experience when we experience the death of a closer family member. Grief is an emotion that makes us do irrational things, think irrational thoughts, and in general is a display of the power of emotions over mind and body. Grief is the extreme sadness we feel during a family member’s death. I think we feel grief because we try to rationalize their departure from Earth so quickly and we also try to compartmentalize our flood of feelings into one little box. Grief is the instinctual emotion we feel when someone we love dies. It’s an excruciatingly painful emotion to feel, but it’s something that can be analyzed. To stop grief in its tracks, just remember that being human means being mortal, and being mortal means everyone dies. It is perfectly normal to experience grief, but how we handle it matters. Sometimes, grief leads to more sadness and that can be a dangerous cascade of emotions. When in grief, just remember your mortality, which is permanent.

        Sadness is the feeling we get when we see in the news or newspaper, or hear from a friend or stranger, something tragic that happened to someone we don’t know. Sadness is very overwhelming at times, but usually less so than grief. Sadness is like a dark cloud that hangs over our head and makes us wonder about our meaning in life. What is the point of life? What is its purpose? When we feel sadness, such questions often come into view and make us wonder about what it means to be a person. Does being human just mean being happy? Or is there more? Our sadness is an indication of our ability to know that others go through periods of emotional turmoil just like us. 

       Sorrow is the emotion of surprise sadness. Sorrow is kind of less “deep” than sadness or grief and is usually less painful. Sorrow is our natural reaction to something shocking. Sorrow involves crying, hate, and anger over a situation or person. Sorrow makes us feel sad over our fragility and instability but also makes us realize we aren’t robots, but rather rational, sentient, and emotional beings who can understand the pain that others go through. Sorrow is a term used to define our reaction to a shocking event. It is less severe than sadness or grief but still painful. It is important to know that such emotions are simply a part of human life.

      I hope in this essay I elaborated on the definition of three similar but different words, and that it is perfectly normal to experience all three at some point in our lives. Negative emotions are simply a part of the human experience and that with them our positive experiences are amplified in quality. Yin and yang are said to be two opposite, intrinsic, and co-existing forces. Both are necessary for a complete, realistic, and beautiful human life. Hopefully in this essay I showed you what negative emotions are and what they describe.