How To Be Sad with Helen Russel‪l‬ Helen Russell

Today is publication day for Helen’s new book How to be Sad. As a special thank you to listeners of the podcast we are delighted to share this exclusive extract from the audiobook. We will be back with a new episode of How to Be Sad with Helen Russell next week.


 


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.


 


Follow Helen on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook @MsHelenRussell
Read more about Helen’s new book, How To Be Sad at Waterstones, Amazon or Apple.
Get in touch with the show at howtobesadpodcast@gmail.com
Thanks to Joel Grove for production and to Matt Clacher at HarperCollins for making this podcast happen.

Hollie McNish is a poet, writer and Ted Hughes Award-winning author of Nobody Told Me – a collection of poems and stories about raising a child in modern Britain..


 


Hollie writes with raw honesty, warmth and humour, but as well as great critical and mainstream success, she’s also had her fair share of setbacks and her work articulates perfectly the ‘everyday sadness’ that we all experience.


 


In this episode, Hollie and Helen chat:


Motherhood myths

The commercialisation of parenthood

The frustrations of modern life

Guilt

Class and snobbery

Online abuse

Not belittling our sadness

The unexpected freedoms of being a single parent

Sting’s next project…

…and reframing selfies as ‘the oil paintings of the Tinder age’


 


Trigger: suicide


 


Find out more about Hollie’s work here  and follow Hollie on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube @holliepoetry


 


Hollie’s next collection of poetry, Slug, is out in May.


Follow Helen on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook @MsHelenRussell
Read more about Helen’s new book, How To Be Sad at Waterstones or Amazon. 
Get in touch with the show at howtobesadpodcast@gmail.com
Thanks to Joel Grove for production and to Matt Clacher at HarperCollins for making this podcast happen.

Meik Wiking is a Danish happiness researcher, CEO of the Happiness Research Institute, and author of the bestselling Little Book of Hygge.


 


Meik is committed to researching into how more of us can get happier, but in doing so, he’s also studied what doesn’t make us happier. His latest report studied the impact of the coronavirus on wellbeing and - spoiler alert – it isn’t great. Here, he talks about his experiences of loss and sadness – both personally and professionally.


 


In this episode, Meik talks to Helen about:


The loss of his mum at an early age

Why sadness matters

The dark side of happiness

Comparison anxiety and inequality

Imposter syndrome

Professional setbacks

Living with less

Acts of service and the importance of feeling ‘useful’

How to keep on an even keel

Finding joy in difficult times


 


Trigger: suicide, bereavement


 


Find out more about Meik at https://www.meikwiking.com/ and follow Meik on Twitter and Instagram @MeikWiking or Facebook @meikwiking1


Follow Helen on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook @MsHelenRussell
Read more about Helen’s new book, How To Be Sad at Waterstones  or Amazon 
Get in touch with the show at howtobesadpodcast@gmail.com
Thanks to Joel Grove for production and to Matt Clacher at HarperCollins for making this podcast happen.

Ella Mills of Deliciously Ella is a champion of plant-based living, an award-winning author, and an adept businesswoman.

Here, Ella also opens up about her lows and feeling vulnerable at times - not least where it all began with a debilitating condition that started her quest for change.

In this episode, Ella talks to Helen about:


Loss

Regret

Chronic illness

Depression

Trolling and online abuse

Feelings of rejection and how we gravitate towards negative feedback

Having a high profile and the challenges that come with it

Allowing ourselves to be vulnerable

The importance of ‘acceptance’

And how ‘everything passes...even when it feels insurmountable’


 


Trigger: depression


 


Find out more about Deliciously Ella https://deliciouslyella.com/ and follow Ella on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook @DeliciouslyElla




Follow Helen on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook @MsHelenRussell



Read more about Helen’s new book, How To Be Sad at Waterstones  or Amazon 


Get in touch with the show at howtobesadpodcast@gmail.com


Thanks to Joel Grove for production and to Matt Clacher at HarperCollins for making this podcast happen.

Why do we cry? How come love hurts? And what’s a happiness researcher doing talking about sadness, anyway?


Helen Russell is a journalist and happiness researcher and How to be Sad is a new podcast  based on her book of the same name - exploring why we get sad, what to do when we’re sad, and how we can all get happier by learning to be sad, better. Because let’s be honest – we are in unprecedented times. None of us are where we thought we’d be this time last year and we’re all struggling. We’re having to get better at having difficult conversations and finding ways of handling our sadness.


Join Helen as she talks to some high profile people from all walks of life who have done just that. Each week, special guests share their own experiences of everything from heartache to burnout, anxiety to addiction, the differences between sadness and depression - and how they cope.


Find out more @MsHelenRussell #HowToBeSad and pre order How To Be Sad at https://harpercollins.co.uk/products/how-to-be-sad-everything-ive-learned-about-getting-happier-by-being-sad-better-helen-russell?variant=32618500653134