Sad love songs

This is what self-care many times looks like for me.
A playlist full of sad love songs and ballads.
And a ridiculous amount of joy in letting them play.

Some mornings begin exactly like this.
Not because something dramatic just happened, but because this is what my inner weather sounds like.
I listen before I explain.
I feel before I fix.

I often fight against this voice of positive psychology that we all know so well.
Be resilient. Be grateful. Be optimistic.
And if you feel sad, angry, or lonely, something must be wrong with you.
I do not buy that.

Some days, it is perfectly human to be not okay.
The danger is not sadness itself, but not knowing how to sit with it, move through it, and come out without breaking, without hardening, without hating.

The ancient Greeks had a word for this: catharsis.

Aristotle described catharsis as the emotional cleansing that happens when we safely experience fear, sorrow, or pity, especially through art and drama.
Not denial. Not suppression.
Release.

For me, catharsis often comes through sad ballads and bad love songs.
I even have a 23-hour-long playlist for it.
I call it my Senti Playlist.
I listen to it almost every day.
Not to wallow, but to cope.

To let my negative emotions surface, take shape, and move through me.
And, paradoxically, to draw energy from them as they fade.
The songs are melodramatic.

They repeat heartbreak like a wound you keep touching.
They are sometimes musically questionable, but emotionally precise.
They let me project what I cannot always articulate: grief, longing, disappointment, loneliness.

I lend the song my feelings, and it gives them back shaped, contained, survivable. Afterwards, I no longer feel weaker.
I feel clearer. Quieter. Stronger.

Maybe the brightest star here is not happiness at all, but the capacity to feel deeply without collapsing. Without breaking.
It is okay to be sad.
What matters is learning how to carry sadness with dignity, and then let it go.

#BrightestStars #Catharsis #MentalHealthAwareness #RightToBeOrdinary #ItsOkayNotToBeOkay #MusicAndEmotion #SelfCare