Honors College Art & Science of Emotions Fall 2017 (1:20 p.m.) Sadness Journal | Page 11

you won ’ t be able to see your family . A lot of families overspend for the holidays and have a significant amount of debt heading into the New Year . This will cause a lot of stress , and with that stress comes sadness . People want to make sure that they spend as much money as their friends when it comes to giving gifts . There ’ s an illusion that has been established in our society equating money to happiness . If you think something is true , its consequences are going to be true . Since people believe that money causes happiness , when people don ’ t have money , they don ’ t think they can be happy . There are some families who rely on charity in order to have a holiday . The people receiving the items are so gracious , but they are also humbled and sometimes embarrassed . They think that , in some way , they are more inferior since they can ’ t afford their own holiday party . This causes them to feel sad , which is the opposite of what they should be feeling .
The holidays are a very emotional time of year ; it is usually the time of the year when we reminisce about loved ones who ’ ve passed away . A lot of the times , we take out old family videos and think about the good times we ’ ve had . Adults start thinking about their parents who ’ ve passed away , which causes the children to get upset about losing their parents one day . We watch old family videos and reminisce about the good times we ’ ve had , with the intention on making us happy , but a lot of times it ends up making us sad . The first Christmas celebrated after losing a loved one is always the toughest . All you can think about is how that person is not there . We feel nostalgic about the way things used to be , which causes us to regret that things have changed .
There are many different things you can try to do to overcome being sad during the holidays . One of the biggest things someone could do to avoid the holiday blues is dropping all expectations associated with the holidays . Don ’ t expect everything to go perfect . Once you lose the expectations and you just go with the flow , you ’ ll be better off because of it . Just focus on the small things happening around you that make you happy . Sometimes we get so caught up in the big picture instead of just focusing on the things
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