.jpg "the benefits of healing tears and how crying brings health to our bodies")
Happy Thursday friends. I hope that your week is going well. Today I wanted to share a Thursday Health Thought post on the subject of crying and tears.
There has been a very painful thing going on in my life personally behind the scenes the last month and half that has truly just crumbled my little heart. In this there has been a lot of tears. As I was walking yesterday morning I thought to myself and my hurting heart- no more tears, please Lord, help heal my heart.
Then I remembered a lesson that I had learned when I was sick about tears that was a gentle encouragement to me. I hope if you are in a difficult or painful situation right now that this information is encouraging to you also!
When my health first started to really
deteriorate in the summer of 2012 I found myself putting on a "fighting
spirit" each day. I was convinced that (just like I had in the past) I
would face the "unknown illness giant before me" with courage
and and beat it just like I had with another illness in the past.
In my mind I had already lived through a season of being told before by doctors
that "there was no hope" and they
had been proved wrong so why wouldn't this time be any different? I decided to
push tears aside, buck up and fight with all that was in me.
I had absolutely no idea what the journey ahead would look
like.
Fast forward to 13 years
later (including 8 consecutive and grueling years of fighting
for my life and health), over 250,000 miles of travel (to meet with nearly 500
doctors and receive a variety of different treatments), countless invasive
testing (that were not pleasant), more than 20 hospital stays,
over 5000 doctors visits, thousands of IV's, 23
claustrophobic (which I never knew I was) hard
covered hyberbaric oxygen treatments, 50 soft-covered hyberbaric oxygen treatments,
more than 10,000 detox baths later, venturing into the land of
"health fears", receiving several life-altering
diagnosis' (including IBD, Sojourn's, Severe Anemia, mold issues, several other diagnosis', Advanced Late -Stage Lyme , and finally
learning I had Cancer -when I was thousands and
thousands of miles away from my family), being told by several major
and very well-known hospitals that they "just were not sure what to do
with the complexity of my case", becoming bed-ridden and housebound at 32 years old, leaving a job that I loved to pursue a dream (going for
additional graduate work) and having both things shattered (and
being told by twenty-three different doctors: "we just
don't see you ever being well enough to hold a full-time job"), having multiple friends walk away in the midst of this
difficult journey (including one that ghosted me after I
received a Cancer diagnosis, one who ghosted me right after my father suddenly
passed away, and one telling me "I didn't have enough faith for the
journey"), receiving precious gifts that I could never have
afforded, being told on at least eight different occasions that "if I
just had more faith I would be better", dealing with the emotional aspects of being seriously ill,
trying thousands of different supplements, vitamins, and
essential oils, being able to walk again (on my own), being able to hike again,
being blown away by generosity of friends and strangers in this journey,
surviving several severe anaphylactic reactions to different medicines and
finally sometimes admitting that the "courage" to continue each day and hour
wanes and instead I just take "one minute at a
time". And in the midst of all that I just listed there were tears.
Lots and lots of tears.
I read a quote somewhere
around year 5 of my journey that I have been leaning into again the last few weeks that said:
"Occasionally,
weep deeply over the life that you hoped would be. Grieve the losses. Feel the
pain. Then wash your face, trust God, and embrace the life that he’s given
you." (You
can read the entire blog post of John Piper's HERE!)
And I have learned
something very important from the years of being sick that I have now implemented again into the last few weeks.
There are actually health benefits to healing tears.
Crying actually helps your body! There are times when I will let myself cry for
a few minutes over bad news or good news. There are times when things are very
difficult and I recognize once again the benefit to healing tears.
I am not saying
to spend each and everyday crying all throughout the day, but spending a few
moments releasing tears helps our bodies in unique ways.
You might remember my blog
post, the importance of laughter for your
health (you can read it here), where I discuss
Norman Cousins who implemented "laugh therapy" into his day. The
amazing healing benefits of laughter are numerous, and I am convinced that laughter is the greatest gift.
In my research though of Norman Cousins when I was sick I did find it
interesting that even Norman Cousins allowed for 10 minutes of crying each day
to "release tears and toxins".
So what are these
benefits? Here are just a few:
2. A biochemist and "tear expert" - Dr. William Frey (who works in
Minneapolis at the Ramsey Medical Center) found that: "emotional tears
shed hormones and other toxins which accumulate during stress".
3. Crying stimulates the production of endorphins.
4. Number 4 shocked me!- Tears actually kill bacteria!
I know I couldn't believe it either y'all! I was shocked but I learned that tears
contain a fluid called "lysozyme" which helps kill 90 to 95% of all
bacteria. In JUST FIVE to TEN minutes!! WOW!
5. Stephen Sideroff, who is a clinical psychologist at UCLA (and who is also
the director of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Ethics) says
that "crying activates the body in a healthy way".
7. Suppressing your tears can actually irritate and contribute to additional
health problems that are caused by stress. The Japanese culture believes in
this so much that they now have "crying clubs". The premise is that
having a time to cry will actually benefit and improve your health.
(Considering Japan is known to be one of the "healthiest" countries
in the world this is a fascinating concept!)
In the healing process- whether it is something emotional or something that is a physical illness take the time to cry if you need to so for a few minutes. Help your body in
these ways above by releasing some of the pent up tears. Do you think that
there is a benefit to healing tears? I would love to hear your thoughts!
Have a wonderful Thursday y'all!
*this was inspired from a blog post that I wrote in 2016 which you can find HERE*
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