How to be Sad: Everything I’ve learned about getting happier, by being sad, better - Hardcover

Russell, Helen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0008384568 ISBN 13: 9780008384562

Publisher: Fourth Estate, 2021

Synopsis

We live in an age when reality TV shows climax in a tearful finale. But feeling sad – genuinely sad – is still taboo. Yet, sadness happens to us all, sometimes in heartbreakingly awful ways. If we don’t know how to be sad, it can be isolating for those experiencing it and baffling for those trying to help others through dark times.

Today, most of us know intellectually that ‘sad’ is normal. But we’re not always brilliant at allowing for it, in practice. Sadness is going to happen, so we might as well know how to ‘do it’ right. And it’s time to start facing our problems and talking about them. Positive psychology may have become more accepted in mainstream culture, but rates of depression have continued to rise.

We’re trying so hard to be happy. But studies show that we could all benefit from learning the art of sadness and how to handle it, well.

We cannot avoid sadness so we might as well learn to handle it. Helen Russell, while researching two previous books on happiness, found that today most of us are terrified of sadness. Many of us are so phobic to averse to negative emotions that we don’t recognise them.

About this title

About the Author

Helen Russell was formerly the editor of marieclaire.co.uk, writes for the Guardian, as well as writing a longstanding column for The Telegraph. She now writes for magazines and newspapers around the world, including Stylist, The Observer, The Times, The Sunday Times, Grazia, Metro, Stella and The i Newspaper.

Russell’s first book, The Year of Living Danishly – Uncovering the Secrets of the World’s Happiest Country (TCM c.50k) became an international bestseller and has been optioned for television.

She’s spent the last eight years studying cultural approaches to emotions and regularly speaks about her work around the world, including at TEDx and in her hugely popular Action for Happiness talks. As the former editor of marieclaire.co.uk, Helen spent twelve years in London but currently lives in Jutland, Denmark with her husband and three children.

Edition details

• Publisher: Fourth Estate
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0008384568
• ISBN 13: 9780008384562
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 384