Humans are unique in creation because laughter and tears intertwine in the emotional roller-coaster of our existence. Tears signify our very humanity they are produced by the gamut of emotions we experience in life. It is not at all surprising that great poets refer to life as "a valley of tears."
A study headed by Dr. William Frey, biochemist and tear expert at the Dry Eye and Tear Research Center, has come up with this tear percentage pattern: Sadness accounts for 49 percent of tears; happiness, 21 percent; anger, 10 percent; sympathy, 7 percent; anxiety, 5; and fear, 4 percent. In babies, tears are caused mainly by hunger, discomfort or pain.
According to Dr. Frey, emotional tears differ chemically from tears that moisten our eyes (like the ones produced when cutting onions), indicating that crying releases specific toxins. Just like in perspiration, we release through the tears we cry poisonous body chemicals that build up during times of stress. Crying is natures way of helping us cope with the pain and hardships of living, expelling toxic substances in the process.
A lover who cries a river over a romantic breakup can get over the negative feelings faster. Mourning relatives face their loss better after crying their grief out. Traumatic childhood experiences can be released from ones negative memory bank by remembering and crying over them in a psychiatric session. After crying, problematic persons are provided a clean slate and are able to start anew and move on.
You can only cry if you really get in touch with your innermost feelings. It is only when you permit yourself to connect with your deepest sentiments that the tears will flow. To release your pain and sadness, you must acknowledge their presence, know the reasons causing them, and then flush them out of your consciousness by crying. Different individuals have different tear threshold levels; determining yours will help you properly process and release your pain.
What do you do when a child cries? Determine the cause of his discomfort. If he is hungry, feed him; if he is wet, change his diapers. A childs attention can be diverted by giving him a colorful toy, a plaything that emits musical tones, or something interesting he can play with. Older children may be harder to deal with. If they persist in crying, let them; they will eventually stop when they get tired. But dont command them to bottle their emotions it is unhealthy.
Crying is letting the dam overflow, so to speak. If you keep denying and boxing in the negative feelings in your life, they would soon accumulate so much pent-up energy that the dam would break. This often leads to a psychological breakdown or a destructive rampage like a school shooting or road rage.
So if you feel you have some deep-seated stress, depression, problem or rage that you cant seem to shrug off, let your emotional dam overflow. Maybe all you need is a good cry.