Stop Hiding Your Feelings: These Are 10 Reasons Why Crying Is Beneficial To Your Health

Stop forcing yourself to be heartless. Stop convincing yourself that you have a stone for a heart. Stop pretending that you are strong. You aren’t and that’s fine.

Stop hiding your emotions and accept yourself the way you are. Fragile and beautiful.

We’ve been raised to believe that crying is bad. Ever since we were kids, we’ve been taught that we shouldn’t cry, because crying is a sign of weakness and it is something that we should avoid doing at all cost.

Well, guess what? That’s not true.

There is nothing wrong with crying. In fact, crying is very beneficial for your overall wellbeing. Yep, that’s right. Crying it’s healthy. It is bottling up feelings and putting emotional barriers that usually make people go mad.

Here are 10 reasons why crying is good for you:

1. It improves your mood. Crying is not a depressive thing. It is a self-soothing habit. When you cry, that helps you regulate your own feelings. You let go of all the tension that is accumulated in your body and you release yourself the negativity.

2. It releases your body from stress. When we’re stressed and we start crying, the tears that are produced in that state force our bodies to let go of the chemicals which increase the level of cortisol, the hormone responsible for stress. This process reduces tension. Additionally, it also activates the parasympathetic nervous system which helps us relax.

3. It destroys bacteria. Did you know that your tears contain lysozyme, a very special enzyme that kills any bacteria that is trying to enter our organism? Yes, that’s right. Lysozyme is capable of destroying 90 to 95 % of the bacteria around our eyes in less than 10 minutes.

4. It cleans your body from toxins. Just like urinating, sweating and exhaling help our body to clean itself from toxins, crying also helps us get rid of toxic substances that should not be a part of our body.

5. It increases your pain tolerance. Or in a nutshell, it alleviates the pain, regardless of whether it’s physical or emotional. While crying, our body releases oxytocin and endorphins, two important neurotransmitters that are responsible for our happiness. This helps us cope with the pain much easier.

6. It improves your eyesight. Can you believe that crying is also beneficial to your vision? Tears are made by the lacrimal gland and they clear up our vision by lubricating our eyelids and eyeballs. Shedding a few tears also prevents the dehydration of various mucous membranes.

7. It relaxes your body and helps you sleep better. Crying triggers the release of the two most important hormones that make us instantly feel much better. This process relaxes the body and helps it fall asleep much faster.

8. It helps you handle the grieving process much easier. The more we allow ourselves to feel whatever we are feeling inside, the faster we will heal. It is simple. Crying may seem like a dramatic habit, but it is the most important step to recovery. Accepting our feelings, no matter how irrational, is what matters the most.

9. It brings people closer. This one is a given. There is no doubt that crying in front of everyone increases intimacy. Feeling free to be vulnerable in front of another person shows that you have a strong connection with this person.

10. It shows emotional and mental strength. When we cry, we make the decision to acknowledge our feelings, regardless of how painful they are. We choose to face the issues head-on instead of repressing our emotions. We allow ourselves to grow emotionally and become more aware of our nature.