6 Reasons To Cry It Out
I woke up the other day in a foul mood. There was no rhyme or reason as to why, I simply woke up that way. After about an hour of brooding and feeling short-tempered with my family, I stowed away to my laundry room for a quiet moment. I could feel it coming; the shortness in breath, heavy chest and and tingling in my sinus passages. A good cry was on the horizon and instead of stifling it, I decided to let the tears flow.
While nothing happened that warranted the cry in that moment, I know enough to understand there are emotions being felt subconsciously that my body needs to process.
After I cried, I washed my face and went about my day choosing not to overanalyze or worry about why I might be crying - an ineffective sign of coping. Within minutes of the episode, I felt better and my mood instantly shifted.
Too often I see clients judging themselves for crying because we have been conditioned to believe that crying makes us weak or that there is something wrong with us. Crying is a biological trick your body uses to release emotions so they don’t stay pent up in your body. Emotions are e-motions or energy in motion. They are physical and when you hold back tears of sadness, anger or frustration you are simply keeping negative energy in your body which can manifest psychological issues such as depression or even physical issues.
Interestingly, physical movement such as exercise is a form of release, but crying is connected to your emotions and is also considered a workout. Wracking sobs, headaches, blotchy skin, a runny nose, full-body shaking , and sweating are products of the sympathetic (fight or flight) nervous system. These physical manifestations of crying help you physically release your emotions.
In reality, you emotionally react to a variety of events and when that happens, your body sends hormones coursing through your body to deal with that stimuli. Crying is your mind and body’s way to re-balance after a physical or emotional shock.
Yes, you should just cry it out and here are six reasons why.
Relieves Stress
When you are in a heightened state of stress you have cortisol (the stress hormone) running through your veins. Crying releases other feel good hormones that help dissipate the cortisol and bring your body back to homeostasis.
Communicates
When you feel emotionally charged and it’s released through crying it signals to someone else that you are feeling something deeply or that you need emotional or physical help. This is instinctive. Babies cry when they are hungry, need fed or are over stimulated because they don’t have the ability yet to communicate with words. This biological novelty changes over time as are able to use words, but it is still a powerful form of non-verbal communication that creates connection.
Aids in Pain tolerance
One of the hormones released through crying is oxytocin which helps manage physical pain. There is a reason we cry when we get injured. Not only does it hurt, but your body is naturally trying to help you tolerate the pain.
Improves Your Mood
Emotions take only ninety seconds to process as long as you don’t attach a story. Just as I cried and immediately felt better, crying releases negative emotions making room for the positives ones to take over.
Creates an Explosion of Creativity
Ryan and I talked about this recently on the True North Podcast. He shared a story about being creatively blocked and the moment he had a good cry his creativity increased exponentially. When you choose to stuff your feelings they take up quite a bit of mental space leaving little room for flow. Sometimes you just need to clear the mental clutter to open up the flood gates.
Helps You Bounce Back from Trauma
In the same way that crying relieves stress, it regulates the nervous system. When you are in rest and digest you are in a calm enough state to gain clarity from the trauma and help you understand what you are going through. Crying ultimately leads to release, forgiveness and resilience.
You may not understand the cause of the crying, but the next time you feel a cry coming on, let it flow. It’s your body’s way of bringing you back to balance. Give yourself permission to feel all the feels. There is nothing wrong with you; it’s called being human.