I woke up the other morning and it seemed as if the world was out to get me. Dramatic, I know…but that’s what it felt like. It was like one gut punch after another in a matter of hours. An hour and a half to be exact. My morning ended with a complete mental breakdown. I could not stop crying for the life of me. My beautiful roommates couldn’t help me, my patient best friend couldn’t help me and despite her best efforts via phone call, my mom couldn’t help me either. Only one thing seemed to help: crying.

Crying can be insanely powerful. I don’t know why people hate crying so much. I mean, I get it could be embarrassing in certain situations (and it definitely ruins makeup), but sometimes you just need to have a good cry. Personally, I value the power of tears. I am a very emotional person who feels deeply. Some may view this as a bad thing, but I love it about myself. It enables me to be in tune with my emotions and helps me sympathize with and support people.

Feelings were created to be felt.

Trying to block out your feelings and ignore them isn’t healthy. Not only is it a stress reliever, but crying is one of those things that connects us all. It doesn’t matter where you come from, what color your skin is, how old you are or how smart you are. We all go through things that make us cry. We may be crying over different things, but our tears are the same. We’re feeling something so deeply that it’s consuming us and we have to set it free. Sometimes, that means setting it free through tears. Crying encompasses a lot of power.

Terri Guillemets once said, “Invisible tears are the hardest to wipe away.”

If you hold it in, you’re going to struggle. You will struggle more than you would if you had just let out those tears. There’s a huge portion of our population who believe that crying is a sign of weakness. Let me be the first to tell you that couldn’t be further from the truth. Crying releases all the yucky stuff you’ve been trying to hold inside of you, afraid to let out. It rids you of those feelings, making room for new ones. If you allow yourself to cry, you are going to get stronger. Plus…crying is relatable! You aren’t the only one who does it. Hell, I cry when I see a movie trailer sometimes. I’m a total sap I know. Happy tears, sad tears, angry tears or even hungry tears- we’ve all been there. Sometimes you have to stop putting a brave face on and let it all go. There is no shame in that. If you keep swallowing your tears, you’ll eventually explode.

So, cheers to mental breakdowns and all kinds of tears! I’m not ashamed of mine, you shouldn’t be ashamed of yours. God gave us tear ducts for a reason.