When we think about crying, our first instincts tell us that it’s bad. We typically associate crying as being this negative thing. We normally consider crying to be a sign of weakness or sadness. Most people are unaware of all of the positive effects crying has for us. To convince you that it is okay to cry once in a while, here are some amazing benefits of crying.
1. Crying Gives an Emotional Release
Crying can allow you to expel any emotions that you are feeling in excessive amounts. Whether these feelings are negative or positive doesn’t matter because the release of intense emotion is always relaxing.
2. Tears Have Antibacterial Properties
Reflex tears clear out and clean out anything that could irritate or cause harm to your eye. These can include things like smoke, onions, and some fragrances. Tears are composed of lacrimal fluid and this can contain antibacterial properties that can fight against infection.
3. Crying Can Relieve Stress
When you cry your body actually releases hormones that reduce your stress and help you calm down when you are dealing with an intense situation. Even though crying may not change the situation at hand, the act releases tension in the body and makes you feel better.
4. Tears Can Help Clear Up Skin
Because tears have antibacterial properties, crying can actually help to remove any dirt or grime that might get into your pores and create unwanted acne. Basically, crying can give you the clear skin everybody wants.
5. Crying Makes You Feel Better
Crying has a huge influence on our feelings in both the emotional and the physical sense. When you consider the emotional release as well as the release of certain brain chemicals known as neurotransmitters, crying can quite often leave you feeling better than you felt before crying. When we look at all the things crying can help you with, it is hard to argue against it.
6. Tears Improve Vision
Not all tears are exactly the same. You actually have different types of tears that perform different tasks. Basal tears are one type that have a specific job of keeping your cornea lubricated. This helps your eye from drying out so you are able to see and move your eyeball properly.
7. Crying Releases Neurotransmitters
Neurotransmitters are chemicals that relay messages from the brain. When you cry your brain releases endorphins, which are a group of neurotransmitters. Endorphin is often called the feel-good chemical because it has pain relieving properties that are similar to morphine, which is one reason why crying can leave you feeling better.
8. Crying Makes You Strong
Crying has this horrible stigma attached to it that spreads the misconception that if you cry, then you are weak. This could not be less true. The contrary has been proposed that crying makes you stronger, especially in the long run because it is such a great tool used for letting go or moving on.
There are so many different ways crying can benefit you. So go ahead and have yourself a good cry because it may do you more good than you realize.