As we grow up, we are trained to hold in our emotions. Crying in public is scorned because it is either seen as a childish act or a form of weakness. Everyone knows this isn’t true, but we still bottle up our feelings until we can release them in private. It’s time to break the stereotype. Crying is entirely beneficial for mental health, blood pressure, and emotional connections!
When it comes to technology, fashion, and transportation, Japan is decades ahead of us, but there has always been a stigma associated with mental health and depression. However, in recent years, they have expanded the acknowledgment of this oppressive system and embraced the emotional facet of life. In fact, there are several events in Japan called Rui-Katsu (or tear-seeking) where adults gather in a semi-public space to share an emotional connection and simply let the floodgates open. It is believed to be a stress-relief session, and in fact, the science of having a good cry supports this.
Your emotional tears actually have higher protein composition than those of pain or onion repellant and contain chemicals that stimulate cortisol, the hormone most commonly associated with stress. Crying isn’t just an action that releases emotions, it’s actually a biological process of ridding those stimulants through exocytosis via your eyes. In other words, you actually let stress go when you cry.
Sobbing makes you take deep breaths as well, which helps you slow your heart rate and lower blood pressure. It also causes you to relieve physical tension, like balling your fists, clenching your jaw, or hunching your shoulders, which calms your heart even more. If you’re crying every day, you should seek professional help, but a good cry session every once in a while is actually decent therapy for your mind and body!
Crying is a way that babies let their parents know about a problem, and that instinct never actually fades. That impulse is usually a trigger from pain, frustration, and even trauma; it’s a personal alert system. The body wants to stay in balance as much as possible, so when you feel a prickle at the corner of your eyes, it’s part of the mechanism that moves you to action. Whether you respond to the cause– such as pulling out a splinter– or decide to let the tears flow, you are actively responding to your body’s signals, just like putting on another layer when you start to shiver or going to bed when your eyelids start to close themselves.
If you do cry in front of others, it alerts them to the problem as well. Maybe they didn’t know how much stress was building in your life until you cried over something trivial. Your roommates may not know how you feel about something until you dissolve into hysterics after dropping your bagel cream-cheese side down. (That was me last year, by the way.) The people you care about always want to help you, so you shouldn’t be afraid to cry in front of them because tears are the easiest form of inviting moral support. It puts things into perspective for others and really strengthens the emotional bond you have with those you love. Crying is your body telling you that something is wrong; it’s quite literally a cry for help, and asking for help is never a weakness.
You shouldn’t be afraid to show your emotions, and you certainly shouldn’t let society tell you to hide them! Relationships are built upon sharing yourself and your sentiments with others, and crying is part of the package. It lets you and those you care about know that something is wrong while relieving stress and reducing blood pressure. There’s no shame in a good sob session, so if you feel like crying because midterms are wearing you down, know that you can without being judged or seen as weak. It’s perfectly normal to cry, and the stress-relief alone makes it entirely beneficial!