{"id":1952,"date":"2016-01-15T06:00:38","date_gmt":"2016-01-15T11:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/?p=1952"},"modified":"2016-01-09T14:19:06","modified_gmt":"2016-01-09T19:19:06","slug":"the-health-benefits-of-tears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/2016\/01\/the-health-benefits-of-tears.html","title":{"rendered":"The Health Benefits of Tears"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Judith Orloff, M.D.<\/em><\/p>\n

For over twenty years as physician, I\u2019ve witnessed, time and again, the healing power of tears. Tears are your body\u2019s release valve for stress, sadness, grief, anxiety, and frustration. Also, you can have tears of joy, say when a child is born or tears of relief when a difficulty has passed. In my own life, I am grateful when I can cry. It feels cleansing, a way to purge pent up emotions so they don\u2019t lodge in my body as stress symptoms such as fatigue or pain. To stay healthy and release stress, I encourage my patients to cry. For both men and women, tears are a sign of courage, strength, and authenticity.<\/p>\n

In \u201cEmotional Freedom,\u201d I discuss the numerous health benefits of tears. Like the ocean, tears are salt water. Protectively they lubricate your eyes, remove irritants, reduce stress hormones, and they contain antibodies that fight pathogenic microbes. Our bodies produce three kinds of tears: reflex, continuous, and emotional. Each kind has different healing roles. For instance, reflex tears allow your eyes to clear out noxious particles when they\u2019re irritated by smoke or exhaust. The second kind, continuous tears, are produced regularly to keep our eyes lubricated–these contain a chemical called \u201clysozyme\u201d which functions as an anti-bacterial and protects our eyes from infection. Tears also travel to the nose through the tear duct to keep the nose moist and bacteria free. Typically, after crying, our breathing, and heart rate decrease, and we enter into a calmer biological and emotional state.<\/p>\n

Emotional tears have special health benefits. Biochemist and \u201ctear expert\u201d Dr. William Frey at the Ramsey Medical Center in Minneapolis discovered that reflex tears are 98% water, whereas emotional tears also contain stress hormones which get excreted from the body through crying. After studying the composition of tears, Dr. Frey found that emotional tears shed these hormones and other toxins which accumulate during stress. Additional studies also suggest that crying stimulates the production of endorphins, our body\u2019s natural pain killer and \u201cfeel-good\u201d hormones.\u201d Interestingly, humans are the only creatures known to shed emotional tears, though it\u2019s possible that that elephants and gorillas do too. Other mammals and also salt-water crocodiles produce reflex tears which are protective and lubricating.<\/p>\n

Crying makes us feel better, even when a problem persists. In addition to physical detoxification, emotional tears heal the heart. You don\u2019t want to hold tears back. Patients sometimes say, \u201cPlease excuse me for crying. I was trying hard not to. It makes me feel weak.\u201d My heart goes out to them when I hear this. I know where that sentiment comes from: parents who were uncomfortable around tears, a society that tells us we\u2019re weak for crying–in particular that \u201cpowerful men don\u2019t cry.\u201d I reject these notions. The new enlightened paradigm of what constitutes a powerful man and woman is someone who has the strength and self awareness to cry. These are the people who impress me, not those who put up some macho front of faux-bravado.<\/p>\n

Try to let go of outmoded, untrue, conceptions about crying. It is good to cry. It is healthy to cry. This helps to emotionally clear sadness and stress. Crying is also essential to resolve grief, when waves of tears periodically come over us after we experience a loss. Tears help us process the loss so we can keep living with open hearts. Otherwise, we are a set up for depression if we suppress these potent feelings. When a friend apologized for curling up in the fetal position on my floor, weeping, depressed over a failing romance, I told her, \u201cYour tears blessed my floor. There is nothing to apologize for.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been this enthusiastic about crying for years. In fact, during my psychiatric residency at UCLA when supervisors and I watched videos of me with patients, they\u2019d point out that I\u2019d smile when a patient cried. \u201cThat\u2019s inappropriate,\u201d they\u2019d say. I disagreed then; still do. I wasn\u2019t smiling because my patients were depressed or grieving. I was smiling because they were courageously healing depression or other difficult emotions with tears. I was happy for their breakthrough. In my life, too, I love to cry. I cry whenever I can. Wish I could more. Thank God our bodies have this capacity. I hope you too can appreciate the experience. Let your tears flow to purify stress and negativity.\u00a0 emoting. Such empathetic communication deepens and enhances love partnerships.<\/p>\n

\u00a9 Copyright Judith Orloff, M.D., adapted from Dr. Judith Orloff\u2019s new book \u201cEmotional Freedom: Liberate Yourself From Negative Emotions and Transform Your Life\u201d (Harmony Books, 2009). All Rights Reserved.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* ***
\nDonna Henes is the author of The Queen of My Self: Stepping into Sovereignty in Midlife<\/em>.<\/a> She offers counseling and upbeat, practical and ceremonial guidance for individual women and groups who want to enjoy the fruits of an enriching, influential, purposeful, passionate, and powerful maturity. Consult the MIDLIFE MIDWIFE\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n

The Queen welcomes questions concerning all issues of interest to women in their mature years. Send your inquiries to thequeenofmyself@aol.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Judith Orloff, M.D. For over twenty years as physician, I\u2019ve witnessed, time and again, the healing power of tears. Tears are your body\u2019s release valve for stress, sadness, grief, anxiety, and frustration. Also, you can have tears of joy, say when a child is born or tears of relief when a difficulty has passed.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":218,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[59,13],"class_list":["post-1952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration","tag-healing","tag-holistic-living"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Health Benefits of Tears - The Queen of My Self<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/2016\/01\/the-health-benefits-of-tears.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Health Benefits of Tears - The Queen of My Self\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Judith Orloff, M.D. For over twenty years as physician, I\u2019ve witnessed, time and again, the healing power of tears. 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