Crying is our natural reaction when we feel pain, disappointment or sadness. Science tells us that it is completely normal and healthy to cry, but some cultures take a strong stand against crying, most especially for men. Some parents teach their male children not to cry saying that it is a sign of weakness or vulnerability. However, what these parents fail to realize is that crying has plenty of benefits that can contribute to the overall well being of their children.
Crying can help you connect with others
You might be uncomfortable to reveal how you truly feel to others but being vulnerable is the best way that you can show someone that you are open to establishing a deeper connection with him.
Crying can help you to move on
Sometimes relationships can go downhill, whether it is a relationship with your family, friend or a special someone. When you are suffering from the burden of sorrow over the loss of a person dear to your heart, crying can help you move forward. It allows you to confront your feelings without fear. Sure, you might break down for a while, but in you will gradually feel relieved and when you do, you can move on with your life.
Crying flushes out toxins from your body
Science actually tells us that crying can help our body flush out harmful toxins. Dr. William H. Frey II at the St. Paul-Ramsey Medical Center discovered that stress-related tears help your body to get rid of toxic chemicals that raise cortisol or what is generally called as the “stress hormone.” This explains why we feel better after crying.
Crying can help you with stress
Our emotions work like ropes. When we let our emotions to take over us, it is the same as allowing ourselves to be tied up with ropes. We are incapacitated. We cannot move and we feel helpless. There are many reasons to be emotional and it does not only involve romantic affairs or family problems. It can also involve issues at work or with yourself. Whatever the reason is, crying can help you deal with stress. Professor Roger Baker, a consultant clinical psychologist at Bournemouth University, supports this notion. He asserts that crying allows us to transform our sorrows into something tangible and that significantly helps with reducing trauma.
Do not be afraid to cry. Crying is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign that you are strong enough to face what is eating you up inside. It is a sign that you are not running away from the things that should be confronted. Cry and let your tears heal you from negativity.
I would like to end my article with this small quote from talks given by the wise mystic Osho..
” .. Tears have to be given a new meaning, a new poetry and a totally new dimension – which they have lost because humanity has lived in misery and tears have become part of that misery. Secondly, because humanity has been dominated by man he has made it a point of his ego and pride that he will not cry. It is feminine to cry, it is womanish to have tears. It is not true. It is an ugly, male chauvinist idea – not only ugly, but unnatural and untrue, because man’s eyes have as many tear glands as women’s eyes have. Nature has not made any difference in tear glands.
More men go mad than women, for the simple reason that man goes on controlling. A moment comes that the repression becomes too much and there is a breakdown. The woman does not control; when she feels like crying, she cries. She is more natural than man. That has given her a few more experiences that man has missed. The woman is healthier; she lives longer, five years more than man. She is more calm and quiet.
It has been told to us that tears are a symptom of weakness – they are not. Tears can cleanse not only your eyes, but your heart too. They soften you, it is a biological strategy to keep you clean, to keep you unburdened. It is now a well-known fact that less women go mad than men. And the reason has been found to be that women can cry and weep more easily than men. Even to the small child it is said, “Be a man, don’t cry like a woman!”
“But if you look at the physiology of your body, you have the same glands full of tears whether you are man or woman. It has been found that less women commit suicide than men. And of course, no woman in history has been the cause of founding violent religions, wars, massacres. If the whole world can learn to cry and weep again it will be a tremendous transformation, a metamorphosis. … ”
