Crying

Woman crying from the web site:  Nature:  http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110106/full/news.2011.2.html

When was the last time you had a good cry, hottie?  Was it during that last tear jerker movie you saw?   At a wedding or some other such ritual?  Or maybe you can’t remember.  Or don’t have time.  YOU are a strong woman and are there for everyone.  At work, for  family, friends, kids, husband, pets.  Or maybe when you want to cry, you push back the urge.

We’re blessed with emotions.   But what’s the deal with negative emotions?   We’ve been taught to fight tears.  Tears are a sign of weakness.  It doesn’t feel good to cry.  We’re told not to “get emotional,” accused of having “PMS,” to be “strong” in the face of adversity.  So why bother to cry?  I have a theory: we should embrace our tears because it’s a way to release negative energy.

Here’s how I arrived at my theory.

The other day I had a fantastic cry.  I didn’t realize WHY I was crying until I allowed myself to do it.  Here’s how it played out:  I was getting ready for the day and slightly edgy. Then I noticed this little bird doing something.  I can’t even remember what the bird was doing but it distracted me from my to do list.  I thought whatever the bird was doing was so cute!  And I started to cry a bit.  Then I said to myself, why am I crying?  So I stopped crying.  I pushed the tears back.  Then I said no.  For some reason I wanted to cry and gave myself permission to do so.

After the cry and on to the research.  I realized that wanting to cry had nothing to do with that cute little bird.  My body was edgy and impatient.  It needed release.  (Just like anger- http://bitchlifestyle.com/2010/09/anger-is-scary-if-you-let-it-be/ ) Was crying the release my body needed?   Is it possible that there is scientific evidence to my theory that crying is a way to release negative energy?  Then I found this:

An interesting study on the content of tears was done by Dr. William H. Frey, a biochemist at the St. Paul-Ramsey Medical Center in Minnesota.  He and his team of analysts analyzed two types of tears: emotional (the ones where crying is caused by someone emotionally upset and stressed) and ones caused by irritants (such as crying from onions).  They found that emotional based tears had more of the protein based hormones such as prolactin, adrenocorticotropic hormone, leucine, enkephalin (natural pain killer) all of which are produced in our body when under stress.  It seems as though the body is getting rid of these chemicals through our tears.  That explains why we usually feel better after a good cry.  From ScienceIQ.com  www.scienceiq.com/Facts/ScienceOfTears.cfm

Yay!  So there you go, Hot Bitches!  Crying, like a nice glass of cold milk, does a body good.  Maybe it’s not a weakness for us to release those tears.  Maybe it’s a way to make us stronger.  Interesting to explore, no?  Love, Goddess

© S Stevens Life Strategies