Believe Better

Sudden Sadness

Stephen opens the discussion of sudden sadness with Psalm 42:11. In this verse, we see King David questioning his state of disturbance, seeking the cause of the downcast feeling within his soul, and reminding himself to place his hope in God. Often times, we become entrapped with a sudden feeling of sad emotion, and we forget that there is a God who is on our side, ready and willing to save and deliver us from despair. But where does sudden sadness come from, and why does it seemingly appear so unexpectedly?

Sudden sadness arises without rhyme or reason. One minute you're doing the dishes, folding the laundry, or just driving down the road, and the next, BAM! Suddenly, you're overwhelmingly sad, tears swelling in your eyes, and you don't know why. You just can't seem to make any sense of it, so you start searching for the cause. Did I take my vitamins? Did I get enough sleep? Did I drink water today? Did someone or something upset me? How did we get here? What is wrong with me?

The reality is that sudden sadness typically does not have a pinpointed moment of explanation. Rather, it is brought on from an accumulation of life, a multitude of events meeting up in one place, a series of feeling loneliness, regret, shame, failure, or lack of purpose. This feeling of sudden sadness can be triggered by something as small as dropping your phone, or something bigger like seeing someone else achieve their dreams while you find yourself lacking any dreams of your own. Whatever the trigger may be, sudden sadness is not your final emotional destination state. There are multiple tools available to help you fight back.

Fighting Sudden Sadness

When sudden sadness comes on, it's easy to fight back. However, it's just as easy not to. Ultimately, it's your choice to stay stuck in this emotion, or to rise above it and fight for your joy. Joy and sadness produce two different types of dopamine within the brain. Depending on the type of dopamine you crave, you could find that you not only enjoy sadness, but are also comforted by it. On the contrary, those who crave the dopamine released by happiness are less likely to rest in a state of gloominess. On your journey of self-development and self-awareness, take notice of how you typically respond to sadness, and don't lose heart. Don't lean into a belief of despair, accepting sadness as a way of life.

Sudden sadness can be a result of a chemical imbalance within the body such as a Vitamin D deficiency, which affects about 50% of the United States. This is an unsurprisingly high percentage seeing as how our lives today do not consist much outside of our houses or workplaces. In efforts to fight against this dreary emotion, reach for 20,000-30,000 IUs of Vitamin D3 + K2. Upping your Vitamin D can help regulate your mood.

Other ways to fight sudden sadness include drinking more water and increasing natural sunlight. When increasing water intake, it's important to reach for high-pH, alkaline water. You can add a pinch of Celtic salt for added electrolytes. This type of water can aid in quick rehydration and reduce the strain placed on the body by dehydration. Taking a short, fifteen minute nature walk in natural sunlight has also proven to boost the mood.

Another helpful tool in fighting sudden sadness is reaching out. Phone a friend, or meet up for lunch with someone who can throw you a rope, someone who is able to speak life into your situation, and help you out. Remember that if someone is asking, "Are you okay?" it's likely because you're giving off a frequency that shows you are in fact, not okay. Fighting the sadness requires a level of truth and honesty of where you are. Rather than lie and try to convince everyone that you're fine, admit your lack of joy and allow those who love and care for you to step in and help you to restore it.

While reaching for water, Vitamin D, natural sunlight, and a helpful friend are easy to do, they're just as easy not to do. The end result of your mood lies in your own choice to come out of your funk, or stay where you are. It's also important to understand balance. Just as it's abnormal to be happy all of the time, it's also abnormal to be sad all of the time.

Intermission

Who doesn't want to be happy all of the time? I speak for myself when saying I absolutely do. However, happiness requires intermissions of unhappiness. The reason being is that it magnifies the moments of happiness, but the intermission must make sense. There has to be a logical reason for the moments of unhappiness, such as grief or disappointment, otherwise you may be dealing with depression.

For me personally, my intermissions of unhappiness can be so overwhelming that it begins to destroy me if I pridefully refuse help, trust in my own strength, and allow it to linger for too long. Truth be told, I'm not that strong. I recognize that my only source of true strength comes from God Himself, and without it, I would not have overcome anything thus far. In my own journey of self-development and self-awareness, I've come to realize that my intermissions of unhappiness often stem from grief as a result of the loss of my mother and both grandparents in a short amount of time. Even now as I reflect on this, I realize these moments bring me back to the present, forcing me to shift my perspective to where I am now, and what I have to be grateful for today.

While wrapping up this topic of sudden sadness, Stephen brings the discussion full circle with Psalm 34:18 which says, "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." This has always been one of my favorite verses, even prior to fully coming into the knowledge and understanding of the truth of the gospel. For much of my life, I felt brokenhearted, and even after discovering truth, I've felt tremendous heartbreak. Yet, the Lord has not left me crushed, but has delivered me each time through the power of my belief.

Power of Belief

Genesis 11:6 says, "The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them." This is in reference to the Tower of Babel. Basically, the people had decided to build a tower that would reach the heavens, and because they all were of one mind, speaking the same language, they would have succeeded. They were a people who set out to achieve what they believed, and they would have, had God not intervened.

Belief holds power. The success of the people of Babel was not up to God, but up to their belief. It took God to come in and stop their already-active success. We often put our success in the hands of other people without realization of the fact that people hold no power over our success. We do. Each of us individually, based on our own beliefs. People have no power to block you. You block you with your own belief system.

The fact is, you absolutely can do anything if you first do it in your mind. If you can't do it in your mind, you can't do it. We often set out to do things that we don't first believe are possible within our minds. Even in our prayer life, we may find ourselves praying for God to do something and then becoming shocked when He actually does it. Does a child act shocked when being fed after telling their parent they're hungry? Does a child act shocked when their parent doctors their wounds, wipes their tears, and helps them up after a fall? Of course not. These are the exact responses they expect to receive. Why then do we, as children of God, become dumbfounded when our Father does his Fatherly duties? Is it not His nature to care for His children? Or is what we believe to be true about Him actually mistaken?

Reassurance

I remember a spiritual retreat about three years ago. My sister brought up a question that has remained with me since. She asked the group, "Do our children ask us every day if we're their mommy or daddy? Do we have to remind them that we're their parents?" The answer to both of these questions is easily, "No." So why then, do we question over and over if God is our Father, or if we're His children? Psalm 36:5-7 speaks of the reaches and unfailingness of God's love to both people and animals. Yet, we so often grapple with the fact that alongside Jesus, we're also His children. Wake up and reassure yourself that God is for you, and He is with you. Doubt your doubts, believe better, and let this concept resonate as truth within your spirit.

Fear & Unbelief

To effectively achieve anything in life, you must first believe. Without belief, you will inevitably walk in repetitive failure, manifesting your unbelief in everything you do. God will place you in a position to be successful, and without belief in God's divine placement, you will forfeit the position. Your unbelief is a result of the very enemy of belief, fear. Fear tells you that you're not enough, inadequate, ill-equipped, and incapable. Fear convinces you that regardless of the power that's been given to you, you're unskilled and unqualified to use it.

A perfect example is given by the disciples in Matthew 17:19-20. They had gone to Yeshua, defeated and doubtful, questioning why they were unable to drive out the demons in the boy who had been brought to them. Though Yeshua had personally given them the power to do so, they were unable due to their lack of faith, faith less than a mustard seed. The disciples were given power, yet they disbelieved that they actually possessed it.

Do we not still possess this little faith today? Are we not still an unbelieving and perverse generation, even more so now than when Yeshua said it to his disciples in Matthew 17:17? Unbelief is plaguing the world more and more with each generation as we drift further and further from the understanding of God.

True Belief

Though much of the world is walking in darkness and unbelief, there are the few who understand the mustard seed, who walk in true belief. True belief is self-evident. It transcends the one who holds it, making nothing impossible for that person. God has already set things in motion to operate successfully. He has already extended His power to you. Yet, no one can help you if you choose to disbelieve you're capable of possessing it. If you find yourself lacking true belief, it's due to a limited understanding. Get a new understanding of who God is, and His purpose and will for your life.

Something Has to Change

The "something" that has to change is the way in which we fight our battles. In every battle, there's a choice to push back, or to lie down and give up. The choice is made based on what and how you believe. Though life can be overwhelmingly painful, exhausting, and flat out difficult at times, never dismiss going to God in the Spirit during those times to cry out for help. As said many times over, God is for you, He is with you, and His desire is that none shall perish but all come to repentance. Open your understanding, and come to believe in the promise He has for you.

2 Takeaways:

1. When sadness comes, push back.

2. Believe better, and life will be better.

It can be a dreadful thought to think of just how many issues we're faced with in our day-to-day lives. There are some battles we anticipate, fully aware and prepared to fight daily, while others emerge unexpectedly and seemingly without warning. In Episode 24 of Something Has to Change, the host of Contemporary Speaks, Stephen, discusses the unforeseen battle that is sudden sadness. It is an issue that arises in each of us at various times, in various ways. Through the power of belief, which Stephen also discusses in this episode, we can reject the dreadful perspective of a difficult, unfair life, and tap into the capability of victory and achievement in every situation.

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