15 Amazing Health Benefits of Crying
In the last blog post, we started to discuss 15 Health Benefits of Crying and in the last 2 posts, about the need to ‘feel your feelings’--------‘feel it to heal it.’
Let’s get into a bit more detail….of 15 Amazing Health Benefits of Crying:
1)it cleanses and
2)it keeps the bad stuff out. Reflex tears are designed to help fight off things that could harm your eyes. So, when you cry these tears, you’re working to keep out the gunk that could injure them or make them uncomfortable.
3)It helps us get rid of stress. Shedding emotional tears can reduce your stress levels, making you feel good after. These emotional tears have higher levels of stress hormones in them, so you, literally, get rid of stress as you cry.
4)it improves and boosts your mood. Since crying is often the outward expression of an intense emotion, releasing it (crying) is better than bottling it up inside…….and this release offers relief. The result------------a better mood.
5)It dulls pain and
6)It releases feel-good chemicals, which improves your sense of well-being. Crying can cause your body to release feel-good hormones, like oxytocin and endogenous opioids, which ease pain. This is also why you may feel a bit numb after a big cry (Dr Saltz).
7)It’s cathartic. Emotional crying seems to soothe your intense emotional state and can prevent that energy from turning into mental health problems. And you can do it on your own.
8)It brings you closer to others. In many situations, crying around or with someone will bond the two of you together. The other person realizes that you feel sad and may try to do what makes you feel better. With shared grieving, this communal crying can be an important way of bonding and establishing our shared humanity (Smith).
9)It helps us to cope with grief. “Crying is the expression of grief and experiencing grief allows you to process it more fully.” (Dr. Saltz).
10)It’s a way we ask for help-------without actually asking. Most people want to help those who cry; they perceive them as helpless in the moment. Most people will do their best to make you feel better and give you some needed support.
11)It keeps dry eye away.
12)It helps restore your emotional balance. Sometimes, crying throws you out of whack and sometimes, you get so worked up---it may be frustration, anger….. and cry. Afterward, you may feel ‘normal,’ (your baseline state) again.
13)It helps us to cope with grief. (same as 9)….
14)It puts things into perspective. It seems that we think a little more clearly after crying…..after you have a good cry, things don’t seem so bad as they did before….
15)After a while, it can be motivating. When you cry, you may feel stuck or like you don’t want to do anything but, afterward, you feel ready to move on and forward. You often feel more able to take things on……
So, there are many good reasons (not that you need them) to cry and to smile and to laugh……and to feel and express ALL of your feelings (in healthy ways, of course). Our mind and our body want to take us back to balance (homeostasis).
The vagus nerve, the largest cranial nerve, runs from the gut to the brain and back again (bidirectional), and passes through many of the body’s organs. Have you ever heard the gut called the ‘second brain?.’ There’s a good reason for this; about 90% of the vagus nerve fibers run from the gut to the brain and about 10% go from the brain to the gut. Clearly, the feelings you have in your body (and gut) then send signals up to the brain. It’s vital to know that it’s the body that holds stress, anxiety and trauma and so, it’s important for us to ‘feel these feelings’ and then, to often release them, to keep our body and then, our mind healthy!
So, allow your feelings to do their job………..and do yours: just ‘feel it to heal it,’ and get back to homeostasis and to life!
With smiles and love,
Dr Gigi
PS: Happy Summer to all! Enjoy the sun, fun, friends, family, get-away vacation, stay-at-home vacation………..or just chillin’
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please be in touch! (@drgigiarnaud on IG, FB, LinkedIn).
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