Maybe you need a good cry

Everybody knows that laughter is the best medicine. But did you know that crying has amazing therapeutic benefits, too? Crying is nature’s remarkable way of releasing sadness and easing pain, yet no other element of life carries so much mystery, misunderstanding, and confusion as the human tear.

Humans are unique in creation because laughter and tears intertwine in the emotional roller-coaster of our existence. Tears signify our very humanity – they are produced by the gamut of emotions we experience in life. It is not at all surprising that great poets refer to life as "a valley of tears."

Why People Cry

Although most of us correlate crying with painful or unpleasant experiences and events, tears can be triggered by positive factors like happiness. Watching an awe-inspiring movie, listening to a beautiful classical concerto, beaming with pride as you watch your child receive an award in school, seeing your national flag being raised at an international convention, and even happy weddings can bring a tear to your eye.

A study headed by Dr. William Frey, biochemist and tear expert at the Dry Eye and Tear Research Center, has come up with this tear percentage pattern: Sadness accounts for 49 percent of tears; happiness, 21 percent; anger, 10 percent; sympathy, 7 percent; anxiety, 5; and fear, 4 percent. In babies, tears are caused mainly by hunger, discomfort or pain.

According to Dr. Frey, emotional tears differ chemically from tears that moisten our eyes (like the ones produced when cutting onions), indicating that crying releases specific toxins. Just like in perspiration, we release through the tears we cry poisonous body chemicals that build up during times of stress. Crying is nature’s way of helping us cope with the pain and hardships of living, expelling toxic substances in the process.

Benefits Of A Good Cry

Aristotle theorized that a good cry cleanses the mind. Not only does it cleanse the mind; it is also beneficial for the body and the spirit. Tears can make you feel better and studies show that after a good cry, people even look better. The release of sadness and unclogging of negative energy blockages are believed to cause a liberating change that produces the pleasant feeling and look of well-being.

A lover who cries a river over a romantic breakup can get over the negative feelings faster. Mourning relatives face their loss better after crying their grief out. Traumatic childhood experiences can be released from one’s negative memory bank by remembering and crying over them in a psychiatric session. After crying, problematic persons are provided a clean slate and are able to start anew and move on.

You can only cry if you really get in touch with your innermost feelings. It is only when you permit yourself to connect with your deepest sentiments that the tears will flow. To release your pain and sadness, you must acknowledge their presence, know the reasons causing them, and then flush them out of your consciousness by crying. Different individuals have different tear threshold levels; determining yours will help you properly process and release your pain.

Let The Children Cry

In most societies, crying in public is a big no-no. We often see parents command their children to hush and stop crying. Most resort to the old "whip ’em to stop their crying" method of disciplining children. Young boys are told that crying is for sissies, that it is a sign of weakness. As kids grow up, they learn to bottle negative emotions, deny how they feel, and keep themselves from crying. This is very dangerous because the negative emotions and internal pain or sadness get bottled up inside the individual, putting perpetual tension in the body, and subsequently developing into some physical illness.

What do you do when a child cries? Determine the cause of his discomfort. If he is hungry, feed him; if he is wet, change his diapers. A child’s attention can be diverted by giving him a colorful toy, a plaything that emits musical tones, or something interesting he can play with. Older children may be harder to deal with. If they persist in crying, let them; they will eventually stop when they get tired. But don’t command them to bottle their emotions – it is unhealthy.

Cry And Be Healthy

Like laughter, crying is one of nature’s most effective anti-sadness therapies. Tears help reduce stress, stabilize emotions, remove toxins, and enhance the body’s ability to heal itself. Scientists now conclude that people who cry enjoy better health. In fact, some hospitals in the US refrain from giving depressed patients anti-depressant medication right away. They allow them time to cry out their miseries.

Crying is letting the dam overflow, so to speak. If you keep denying and boxing in the negative feelings in your life, they would soon accumulate so much pent-up energy that the dam would break. This often leads to a psychological breakdown or a destructive rampage like a school shooting or road rage.

So if you feel you have some deep-seated stress, depression, problem or rage that you can’t seem to shrug off, let your emotional dam overflow. Maybe all you need is a good cry.

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