BENEFITS OF CRYING & SHEDDING TEARS

Human beings have the tendency to offload their sorrows and frustrations through crying and shedding of tears. Crying is a common human experience and has been a part of every culture and civilization throughout history. Traumatic events, loneliness, prolonged stress, loss of life and property, pain, and daily hassles of life often trigger the process of crying. Many times, people drop tears of joy, happiness, and relief. Although crying occurs due to feelings of sorrow and distress, but once the process of crying is over, they experience a good feeling of releasing unpleasant emotions. Research done on the effects of crying indicates that in most instances, crying is quite beneficial to the human minds and body.

Crying is one of the people’s most effective emotional outlets. People can easily express how they feel, whether they are happy or sad by bursting into tears. Crying is really an effective way to let it all out. At times, it is even better than laughing because when you express yourself through letting your emotions go, you are helping yourself to face the pain and move on. There are some instances when people cry because of extreme happiness or what they call “tears of joy.”
One of the most common misconceptions of people is that crying shows and symbolizes weakness. You are not weak when you cry. On the contrary, crying makes you more human because you are not afraid to show your emotions.
When people cry, they are helping themselves to clear their minds and emotions. However, we should all know that crying is just one of the stages in resolving our problems. It is not an overnight solution. In fact it is not an actual solution. Tears can only help you feel better and ease your burden.
The action of crying itself releases stress relieving hormones which make us feel better. That also kind of explains why people feel more calm and refreshed after shedding some tears. Crying opens the lungs, cleans and exercises the eyes and softens the temper. Crying releases emotional tensions and has a beneficial effect on both the mind and body. Females do seem to produce psychic tears more frequently than men possibly due to habits and a greater level of emotions. Crying is perhaps the easiest and fastest way to release emotional pain.

The many benefits of crying include:
1. Removes toxins form the body.
Crying helps the body to get rid of waste material, toxins and other harmful substances from the body. These substances would otherwise remain inside and might cause harm to the internal system. Though it may sound odd, yes, it is definitely true. Crying is one of the best ways to clear and clean the eyes. If you let tears flow, you will also remove dirt that cannot be removed by just washing the eyes from the outside.

2. Preventing the occurrence of depression.
Most people get depressed because their emotions could not be expressed at the right time and got suppressed inside their minds. Crying prevents the suppression of personal emotions and is one of the healthiest ways to come out of them. Crying also improves the state of people who are already depressed and make them feel better. Crying is the best outlet of pain. Instead of doing negative things, you can just cry to ease your pain and to save your heart and mind from unending sorrow and misunderstanding.

3. Lifts your mood:
If your mood is low due to physical or emotional pain, crying stimulates the release of endorphins. These are hormones which help to elevate mood and also act as pain killers. Due to the release of these hormones people usually feel better after crying.

4. Beneficial for the eyes.
The tear glands present in the eyes continuously produce tears in small quantities. Blinking of the eyes spread these tears evenly over the surface of eyes. This helps in cleaning and lubrication of the eyes.

5. Prevents bacterial growth.
Tears contain a chemical component known as Lysozyme. This chemical inhibits the growth of bacteria on the surface of the eyes. Some portions of tears that come out of the eyes evaporate, but remaining tears through the tear duct drain into the nose. These help to keep the nose moist and lysozyme present in the tears inhibits the growth of bacteria inside the nose.

6. Helps in relaxation.
Once a person stops crying, the body shifts from a high arousal state to state of relaxation. Heart rate and breathing slows down, sweating decreases and person feels more relaxed. The state of relaxation lasts for a longer duration than the moments spent in crying.
So next time when you are unhappy stressed or depressed, find a friend’s shoulder and cry for some time. It will not only reduce your unhappiness and stress, but also make you positive towards solving the issue.