Sadness is universally considered an inevitable illness. It arrives unannounced, making its existence a palpable stroke of silent living. Often, it takes everything away from you for a while, leaving you utterly blank, as if your existence were always a hollow nest built in nothingness. With constant failures in trying to forget and escape it, one might grow desperately frustrated. It is a never-ending flow, a perennial river. Is it not?

The dire need to be free of sorrow — to feel neutral, if not completely joyous — is a prayer of the heart. But what I have in mind, as someone who has lived through enough cycles of life, is quite an interesting theory.

One thinks of taking a break, of breaking through, and feels the very absence of happiness deeply. All we ever seem to want coincides with a struggle for eternal escape. Perhaps we have been so heavily invested in searching for a way out of this sad cycle that we never thought about cheating it. Cheating sadness? It sounds odd, doesn’t it? But it is possible. “Cheating” might not be the best word, but the truth is that sadness can be cheated. In the sense that, for a while, you can slip away from its grasp without struggling desperately.

Well, dear reader, let me tell you what to do when you are in the midst of sadness.

The first principle to remember — the one that should be primary — is that of distraction. Sadness, quite seriously, forces you to dangle between reality and an impulsive, escapist attitude. To replace that very dilemma of being inherently stuck, distraction becomes a sweet mix of both. It may seem useless, and that is exactly where its essence lies. Because, dear sad person, being sad is also quite useless.

Sometimes, even a conscious act of distraction feels too difficult to achieve. But what I have in mind requires nothing except time. When I speak of distraction, I don’t mean the things around you — I mean the things you can do by yourself.

Make yourself a warm cup of coffee, or maybe an iced lemon tea in your favorite glass — whatever your comfort drink may be, or as I like to call it, your consolation drink (pun intended). You are already half distracted in the process of calculating how much of what goes into preparing it. Trust me, the process itself is a metaphorical hug. It allows you to choose comfort even when you feel deeply uncomfortable inside. It reflects the power you still hold over yourself — a small but important reminder of independence even in a moment of losing it all.

And then, choose a movie. The act of choosing itself is a form of unconscious distraction. Not just any movie, though. Choose a thriller, or even a documentary. You might expect me to suggest something comical, but thrillers and true documentaries have a lingering after-effect. They bring you both a required dose of reality and a much-needed escape, because it is not your reality. You will spend more time thinking about it afterwards than you spent watching it. The result? You are carried away from your own world of sorrow, into a place where you analyze things outside your control. Cheating sadness, as it is. Not that hard, right?

The second principle is relevance. Relevance creates a comfort zone. I bet everyone has a playlist of their favorite sad songs. It may sound strange, but indulging in them can be more effective than listening to upbeat songs. The subconscious truth of sadness is that the more you try to escape it, the deeper you sink into it. The real issue is not that you are sad, but that you are unconsciously convinced your sadness is solitary.

So, sad songs? They are the most relevant choice. Familiarity breeds relevance, and relevance breeds comfort. You realize you are not alone — that when these songs were written and heard, all their listeners felt the same way. You might cry, and that’s okay. Because when you stop, the release is everything you needed to let out.

Finally, you must have heard of Kidlin’s Law. If you haven’t, it states: “If you write the problem down, half the problem is solved.” This leads to the third principle of cheating sadness — understanding it.

We have hated sadness for so long that we forget it needs to be addressed as a self-reflective matter. You can distract yourself, you can relate through relevance, only to reach the stage of understanding where your sadness came from in the first place.

But why did I suggest distraction and relevance first if this was the conclusion? Because understanding requires patience, and patience often disappears in the chaos of emotions. That’s why it’s important to take it step by step — to wait before you see.

Who knows? A comfort drink, a thriller movie, and a playlist of sad songs might just help you cheat sadness.

.    .    .