The song lyrics "it's my party and I'll cry if I want to" always comes to mind when I think about pity parties. We've all had the notorious pity party at times, to some degree or another. But are they just a "woe is me" event without any purpose? Are they something we should be trying to avoid completely? I don't think so.
While I don't believe it's productive for us to wallow in them for long or live our lives going from one pity party to the next, I do believe they are useful when not allowed to get out of hand and control us. They give us the opportunity to deal with the grief of disappointment on occasion. I'm not talking about the times in life where we must deal with major grief; that's a whole other matter. But grief is real even when it is small and over the not-so-big things in life. These feelings still need processed so they don't affect our life in a negative way.
Pity parties seem to just pop up on their own out of the blue. There are no formal invitations sent out. They just happen. Some kind of disappointment triggers "those feelings", without any kind of planning. But pity parties should not last indefinitely. You're only down for a moment. Once you've cried it out for a bit (or been moody, moped around, or whatever else it is that you do to deal with those feelings)... then you gotta get up, dust yourself off, and get back in the fight. There comes a time to "get over it". But take a little time to process those feelings first, because once you've properly dealt with your disappointment, you will be ready to move on again without it hanging over you and holding you back. :)
