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The Health Benefits of
Tears
by Judith Orloff, M.D. |
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For over twenty years as physician, I’ve witnessed, time
and again, the healing power of tears. Tears are your
body’s 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’t 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.
In “Emotional Freedom,” 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’re irritated by smoke or exhaust. The second
kind, continuous tears, are produced regularly to keep
our eyes lubricated--these contain a chemical called
“lysozyme” 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.
Emotional tears have special health benefits. Biochemist
and “tear expert” 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’s natural pain killer
and “feel-good” hormones.” Interestingly, humans are the
only creatures known to shed emotional tears, though
it’s possible that that elephants and gorillas do too.
Other mammals and also salt-water crocodiles produce
reflex tears which are protective and lubricating.
Crying makes us feel better, even when a problem
persists. In addition to physical detoxification,
emotional tears heal the heart. You don’t want to hold
tears back. Patients sometimes say, “Please excuse me
for crying. I was trying hard not to. It makes me feel
weak.” 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’re weak for crying--in particular that “powerful men
don’t cry.” 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.
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, “Your tears blessed my floor. There is
nothing to apologize for.”
I’ve 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’d point out that I’d smile when a patient cried.
“That’s inappropriate,” they’d say. I disagreed then;
still do. I wasn’t 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. emoting. Such empathetic
communication deepens and enhances love partnerships.
© Copyright Judith Orloff,
M.D., adapted from Dr. Judith Orloff’s new book
“Emotional Freedom: Liberate Yourself From Negative
Emotions and Transform Your Life” (Harmony Books, 2009).
All Rights Reserved.
Books by
Judith Orloff, M.D.:
Please click on the book covers to purchase
at Amazon.com
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Judith Orloff, M.D.,
an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA
and intuition expert, is author of the new book Emotional
Freedom: Liberate Yourself From Negative Emotions and
Transform Your Life (Harmony
Books, 2009) Her other bestsellers are
Positive
Energy, Intuitive
Healing, and Second
Sight. Dr. Orloff synthesizes the pearls of
traditional medicine with cutting edge knowledge of
intuition and energy medicine. She passionately believes
that the future of medicine involves integrating all
this wisdom to achieve emotional freedom and total
wellness.
FREE MINI VIDEO CLASSES ON YOUTUBE FOR YOU!
Please check out “Dr. Orloff’s Living Room Series” to
find out more about the special method Dr. Orloff
recommends to remember your dreams and other topics to
build the power within. Stop by www.youtube.com/judithorloffmd anytime.
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