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

whatever you’re feeling right now there is a mathematical certainty that someone else is feeling that exact thing -Neil Hilborn The Positive Effects of Sadness Anonymous Author Sadness is often looked upon as a negative emotion that should be limited as much as possible. Because of this, the duration of time to feel sad that society deems ‘healthy’ is often shorter than what we actually experience, leading to many people pushing down and/or avoiding the sadness that they feel. The view of sadness as negative most likely comes from the feeling of anguish (or separation from everybody else as defined by Sartre). When we experience sadness on our own, the feeling is overwhelming, as we believe that we are the only ones feeling this way. In reality, it is almost completely certain that we are not the only one feeling this way. Poet Neil Hilborn portrays this idea beautifully in his poem “This is Not the End of the World” when he says that “Whatever you’re feeling right now there is a mathematical cer- tainty that someone else if feeling that exact thing”. When we view sadness as a solitary event to not be shared, it becomes a negative event. However, sadness as an emotion can be extremely beneficial and of- 13.

Honors College Art & Science of Emotions Fall 2017 (1:20 p.m.) Sadness Journal | Page 13