Ah, the beauty of crying. We all do it -men and women- probably more times than any of us are willing to admit. It's a natural human response that some of us are more prone to than others, but we've all done it in our lives. There are different varieties of tears, as most of us know: natural tears that act as a protector of our eyeballs, tears that water when we get something unsafe in our eye and tears that occur when something emotional happens in our lives. They actually all serve as a helpful advantage in some way, shape or form.
The first two are pretty self-explanatory. These tears keep your eyes away from things that shouldn't be in there. But what about the third form of crying? How can emotional crying be good for us in any way? Believe it or not, crying when you're sad releases hormones including oxytocin and endorphins which physically helps us reduce pain. So, crying isn't as useless as some of us like to think. This is the human body's way of healing itself from something that was causing emotional pain. Besides the good hormones that are released, crying also rids your body of stress hormones. Every tear that falls contains stress hormones that are leaving your body -which is a good thing! You'll start feeling better as more of them escape.
Ever notice that after a good cry, you want to go to sleep? Crying is known to be beneficial for sleep habits. After your body has calmed down, you'll have a much easier time getting to bed. Next time you have insomnia, try releasing some stress hormones and relax with an old-fashioned pity party.
After all the physical health benefits crying is good for, there's one benefit of crying that everyone knows. It brings our family and friends to understand we need support. Crying is an interpersonal benefit and an attachment behavior that some of us use more than others. We learn that crying is a call for help when we're newborn babies because that's the only way we could communicate to our parents what we needed! Humans know when other humans are sad, because of this natural response. When you cry, the people around you will come to aid you and support you. We are extremely sympathetic creatures because we have feelings and emotions that other animals don't have. We feel pain for others when they are sad, and that's what makes this beautiful phenomenon occur!
Now, after all of this, I think we can all feel a little less embarrassed about crying. It's natural, it's good for you, and it brings your friends and family closer. Next time you're feeling sad, let it out because the benefits you'll get are surprising.
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