If you’re a “crier” like I am, you’ll be happy to know that your tears are not in vain. There are many benefits of crying.
Gosh, there’s nothing I love more than a good cry. And I can’t be the only one!
Allowing my tears to fall opposed to holding them back has become one of my favorite wellness tools. Crying is so therapeutic.
When is the last time you had a good cry?
Anytime that I allow myself to shed a few tears (or more than a few), I feel refreshed and I never regret it. Ever. Crying has become one of the wellness tools that I keep in my tool belt; a healing method that I use fairly often. And it’s nice to know that there are many personal benefits to crying aside from feeling 10 pounds lighter.
Emotional Tears Matter
My all-time favorite place to release my tears is in the shower. I come out of the bathroom a whole new woman. Clean from the inside, out.
During these beloved, therapeutic crying sessions, I release “emotional tears”. Emotional tears are one of 3 types of tears that our body creates. The other two types, basal and reflex tears help to protect your eyes, and are important for their own reasons.
Emotional tears can be triggered by strong emotions such as empathy, compassion or pain, and according to the American Psychological Association, women release these tears more often than men do. On average, women typically shed emotional tears 30 to 64 times a year, while men do so around 5 to 17 times.
This difference among women and men is pretty significant, but I’m not surprised. Many cultures unfortunately see crying as a weakness if the tears are coming from a man’s tear ducts. Being an African American woman, I have definitely witnessed the emotional reprimanding of “man tears” in my community first-hand, and it is pretty concerning.
After learning about the many benefits of crying, I believe that shedding tears should be mandatory for everyone, not optional. Even if that means finding some time alone to let your tears flow freely.
Benefits of Crying
Allowing your tears to flow has amazing benefits that can improve your overall well-being.
Here are 6 personal benefits of crying that we can all experience if we allow ourselves to shed a few tears every now and then:
- Crying Reduces Stress
Crying helps reduce stress by flushing out cortisol and other stress-related hormones through emotional tears, which contain higher levels of these chemicals than other types of tears. The act of crying may also trigger a decrease in the production of these stress hormones.
- Crying Helps Relieve Pain
Crying helps relieve pain by releasing endorphins and oxytocin, which naturally ease both physical and emotional discomfort. It activates the parasympathetic nervous system, promoting relaxation and further reducing the intensity of pain.
- Crying Boosts Your Mood
Crying boosts your mood by releasing endorphins and stress hormones, providing emotional relief and lifting your spirits.
- Crying Creates Connections With Others
Crying is a nonverbal signal of distress that can lead to empathy and support from those around you, strengthening social bonds and fostering deeper connections. This shared vulnerability can bring people closer.
- Crying Gives You Insight Into What’s Going on Internally
Crying can signal that something is wrong, helping you become aware of suppressed emotions or unresolved issues. This self awareness allows you to address the underlying cause.
Why Prioritize Emotional Expression?
Anytime I’ve attempted to hold in emotions such as sadness or anger, pretending that they weren’t there, it never ended well. Not only is suppressing undesirable emotions uncomfortable internally, but when those emotions are finally released, they have magnified.
Outside of the amazing benefits of crying, I believe that allowing ourselves to express our emotions via tears is genuinely a loving and compassionate thing to do for ourselves. And that’s what wellness is all about – nurturing oneself, and practicing healthy habits.
Masking or bottling up our emotions can have life changing consequences. You can potentially hurt yourself and others. It’s impossible to outrun negative emotions forever, so it’s best that we put our energy into emotion regulation opposed to emotional suppression to combat emotional buildup.
Our well-being would certainly appreciate it!
