I’m a firm believer in the power of bawling your eyes out. I cry when I’m happy, when I’m stressed or sad and DEFINITELY when I’ve just been through breakup. Ending a relationship, even you’re the one who shut it down, is tough, and the first step in moving on is to cry it out, right? If, like me, you can’t turn off the waterworks after breaking up, don’t feel bad — it’s actually good for you.
- Crying releases toxins. According to William H. Frey II, we all have different types of tears. When you cry, high levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) are in the tears that you’re shedding. Bawling your eyes out when you’re heartbroken helps wash out the stressful hormones, which is cleansing and will make you feel so much better.
- Crying is a natural antidepressant. According to a study from the University of South Florida, letting yourself have a good cry actually boosts your mood and can be quite self-soothing. The study even suggests that crying made participants feel way better than an antidepressant. So crying over a bad relationship is actually like giving yourself some mood-boosting medicine.
- Bawling your eyes out brings you back to reality. Bawling your eyes out, I mean really crying to the point where the term “ugly crying” would be a generous compliment for whatever you’re doing, can awaken your soul and change your perspective. After crying so hard you can’t catch your breath, don’t you find that you’re able to calm yourself down and start to think rationally? Of course you’re sad about your relationship ending, but after a good cry, it’s easier to think that your former dirtbag is actually human opposed to the embodiment of a scorched turd.
- It’s better to confront your feelings than pretend they don’t exist. Mindfulness is all about being in the present. It means facing and experiencing every emotion and every part of yourself at that time, and that doesn’t always mean peace and solitude. If you’re upset or crying for no reason, being aware of that raw emotion can have numerous benefits for your overall peace of mind. If you bottle it up, it’ll only come out more violently in the future.
- Crying kills germs. It’s like your natural antibacterial soap. The health benefits of crying it out just keep adding up, and this is no exception. Tears contain antibacterial agents that can kill 90-95% of bacteria in up to five to 10 minutes. That might not sound like it means much, but it’s got to be a good thing, right?
- Crying can help with your vision. The eyes are the window to the soul, so why not improve your vision and make it easier to spot the decent humans when you get back in the dating game? Tears can actually help your eyesight by lubricating your eyeballs and making your vision more clear. Tears keep your eyes moist and prevent them from drying up and collecting dust. You don’t want to miss a great guy when you finally meet him because you couldn’t even see him.
- Crying can make you stronger. Letting your guard down can actually build up your strength and resilience. I know it seems counterintuitive, but when you bawl your freaking eyes out because of a bad breakup or a rocky patch in a relationship, you can actually become stronger and more emotionally intelligent. Unfortunately, no one grows in the peaks, only the valleys. Bawl your eyes out and become a warrior.
- When the tears flow, so does the creativity. Are you a writer? Do you doodle, journal, draw or sculpt? Creativity is alive in so many of us, whether it’s in discovering a new way to look at a problem or drawing a really spectacular stick-figure in the park, tears can help sculpt creative minds and artistic vision. Would you say after a rough break up, big fight or awkward tension with a partner you create and doodle your best stuff?
