The benefits of tears: crying is good for your health
In 2013, a new therapy began in Japan that has been gaining popularity after observing the beneficial results it has. We talk about Riu-Katsu , a group therapy, in which participants gather to watch sad movies and cry.
Crying can be much better than you imagined
But why cry in a group? According to an adept to this therapy "The Riu-Katsu is not like crying alone in my room. I do not feel depressed or sad exactly when I cry here, accompanied by other people. "
We can give several answers to this statement. On the one hand, in a culture as rigid as the Japanese, where the expression of feelings is not socially accepted, to be able to cry in a group is a positive reinforcement and a social acceptance to the expression of those feelings and, on the other hand, according to the experts, when crying in a group, the depressive component that people consider to cry alone is removed. But, in addition, there is another factor to consider, and it is the fact that most people do not know how to react to someone who cries and we tend to console and ask them to stop crying, because, socially and culturally, we feel uncomfortable with certain emotional manifestations.
Related article: "8 tears seen with a microscope reveal different emotions"
Riu-Katsu: therapies in which to cry is positive
Perhaps, it may surprise us that there is a therapy whose basis is crying, but there are scientific studies that confirm the benefits of tears for the emotional well-being of the person .
Crying is not always an expression of negative feelings. It is a reality that we cry to express sadness, grief and nostalgia but, also, we can cry of anger, of pain and, in other cases, we cry to express happiness and joy.
Some benefits (physical and psychological) of tears
Tears prevent dry eyes, help fight bacteria that accumulate in them and clean the visual channel, but, at the same time, crying helps to release negative emotions, eliminates tension and relieves stress. Also, it allows you to know yourself better, through crying your own weaknesses, needs and qualities are recognized. According to William Frey II, after crying the person sees with greater clarity because "there are no longer the pains that obstruct the intellect".
Crying also produces physiological changes in the body, the tears themselves change their composition as they respond to one function or another. According to researcher William Frey II, emotional tears contain more prolactin, adrenocorticotropic hormones and leucine-enkephalin, which they are neuromodulatory elements that act as a natural analgesic and help to calm , relax and release stress.
Crying has the ability to reduce manganese levels in the body, which is related to states of anxiety, nervousness and aggression and, if that were not enough, crying also allows eliminating adrenaline and noradrenaline, which are secreted in excess situations of stress or danger and can be harmful.
Crying, important for homeostasis
Lauren Bylsma, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh, for her part, says thatThe crying helps the body to return to a state of homeostasis after being altered , that is, that the tears fulfill the function of returning the body to its basal level of functioning. It is for this reason, that after crying, you usually feel a sense of relief and relief, which improves the general well-being of the person.
Just as we accept laughter socially as an expression of feelings of joy or nervousness and value feelings of later well-being, we have to learn to accept crying, which is another manifestation of our emotions . To do this, we have to educate from a young age in the recognition and expression of feelings and not censor those who express them freely, by the discomfort that generates this manifestation and, above all, leave behind the myths associated with tears and assume that "crying does not make us weaker", but on the contrary, crying strengthens us by helping us to take out the negative emotions that we feel and restore calm.
And that "men do cry", because as human beings with feelings they have the right to express themselves.
