Sometimes we look to others and feel a pang of sadness; we wish we had something they had.
People looking in from the outset can often refer to this feeling as jealousy, however, more often than not it is a sense of grief.
That letting go period in your life, or the spring of a memory, either way it didn't happen, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't feel sad or grieve your loss.
Mum-of-two, Laura Mazza, shares her thoughts on the process, and we're completely in sync with her sentiments.
Laura alludes to the idea that there doesn't have to be a death for you to feel sad or grieve, it can be a run of the mill daily activity that fills you with that feeling.
"It's okay to feel sadness if your best friend falls pregnant when you've been trying to for years."
"It's okay to feel sad about the way you gave birth, to mourn what you would or should have had."
"It's okay to see someone breastfeeding and feel sadness because you couldn't do it."
Moreover, Laura believes it's OK to feel sadness on special occasion days if you miss someone, or if you simply feel lonely or hurt.
"Grief is always a hidden emotion, sadness is always a hidden emotion, they are treated like emotions we shouldn't feel, like it's wrong and bad, that it's emotions we should hide."
"We are told to get over it and given a timeline on how long we should feel sad. But why? Like happiness, sadness is real, like joy, feeling grief makes us human, like excitement, feeling hurt are all real emotions," writes the mum.
Laura questions why we shouldn't just allow ourselves to feel this way, because if we can feel it, surely that is the best way we can heal.
Us mums can put too much pressure on ourselves to be perfect, but it is reassuring to hear that we're not the only ones who can have these feelings, and it is absolutely necessary for us to feel it too.
As Laura so beautifully puts it: "You cannot appreciate sunshine if you've never embraced the rain."
