“Stop crying!”, “Big boys don’t cry!”, “Be strong!, don’t cry!”, “Oh! there is nothing to cry about. Suck it up”. Yes, it’s hard to let your tears fall with so much of stigma around crying. That’s why, when people face stress, frustration or grief; they force an emotional barrier upon themselves to be strong.
Why so? Crying is as natural as laughter. We don’t hold our laughter back then why do we hold back our tears? If there is nothing shameful in expressing joy, what’s the shame in expressing grief? Let’s be honest! Don’t we feel better after a good cry? How? Why does crying always make us feel better?
Science behind tears
Lacrimal glands commonly known as tear glands are found in eyes of all land mammals. And the salty fluid released from these glands are tears. They constitute of protein, water, mucus and oil. But not all tears are of emotional types. From biological -perspective there are three types of tears.
Basal tears: Function of automatically released basal tears, is to lubricate and clean our eyes. They are released from nasal cavity; that is why many of us have runny nose after a cryfest.
Reflex tears: They results from irritants like smoke, dust or onion vapour. They are also linked with coughing and yawning. Reflex tears basically protect human eyes by getting rid of the irritating substance from them.
Emotional tears: These tears are caused due to emotional stress. This is what we commonly refer as crying. Emotional tears don’t always result from negative emotions; people also cry when they are extremely happy. This is the only type of tears that we can control to some extent.
Emotional tears have different composition than reflex and basil tears. They contain more of Prolactin, Adrenocorticotropic hormones and leucine-enkephalin (a natural painkiller). These tears also contain more of mood-regulating manganese.
Tears of joy or tears of grief, they all are good for you
Emotional Catharsis
Letting your emotions roll down through your eyes is cathartic. Emotional crying activates parasympathetic nervous system which restores the body back to the state of balance. Crying is an effective way to process heavy emotions often caused due to stressful or overwhelming situations. An intense crying episode releases oxytocin and endorphins; the ‘happy hormones‘. That’s how you feel better after shedding emotional tears.
Connect and Communicate
Your tears can express those emotions that you otherwise find difficult to express through words. Tears are empathetic, they are full of warmth, they connect. We don’t just sob in front of random strangers, we only cry in comfort of close and trusted ones. Tears sends signal that we are comfortable with being vulnerable and need to be supported.
Physical Benefits
Crying helps your body release oxytocin and endorphins. These feel-good hormones help ease out physical and emotional pain. Oxytocin gives a sense of well-being and calmness. Likewise, endorphins improve the sense of well-being, thus easing out stress and anxiety. Act of crying release cortisol (a stress hormone) through tears. Thus decreasing the overall feeling of stress.
Let Out Repressed Feelings
There is another kind of crying which many of us might have experienced. It’s called happy crying. It happens when you are overwhelmed with happiness or amusement. These tears of joy, though somewhat confusing, also have a purpose. They help you release all those repressed feelings that you haven’t addresed yet. Happy moments don’t always come easy. Every college degree has countless sleepless nights behind, every dream job is a result of years of hardwork and patience. So when you hold that letter in hand, you are actually relieving yourself from that prolonged stress that you had been holding in for years.
Don’t hold back your tears, let them roll down
Holding back your tears means you are not expressing your emotions in a healthy manner. While it could be challenging to express through tears because of negative notions around crying. In that case you may look for other healthy outlets for your emotions. You may choose to confide in a loved one, talk it out or write it down. Any which ways holding your emotions inside is extremely harmful for your physical and mental health. Pent up emotions leads to anxiety, and stress. On the other hand letting them roll out in the form of tears helps you restore your balance.
Crying is not a sign of weakness. Rather, it’s a demonstration that you have learned to acknowledge, accept and address all your emotions without judging them. And you have learned to be in comfortable relationship with yourself.
“Tears are the safety valve of the heart when too much pressure is laid on it .”
― Albert Smith