Most of the time, I like to think of myself as a generally happy person. I love smiling and laughing, and I’m more keen to positivity than negativity. I think that most people who meet me would agree. However, there are some days where I just feel too stressed, frustrated, or overwhelmed, and I can’t help but shed a few tears. While I like to keep these instances on as low of an occurrence as I can, I think that a good cry every now and then can be beneficial.
A close friend of mine once told me that we cry in order to let others know that we’re overwhelmed. Whether in sadness, frustration, fear, or even happiness, tears act as a message to others. I don’t often like to tell people when I’m sad, because, first of all, I don’t want to bring their mood down along with mine, and, second of all, I’ve found that if I act as if I’m happy my mood will improve, almost as if I were tricking myself into improving my mood.
Often, though, I find that acting like I’m happy when I’m not is just that; an act. While sticking a smile on my face can put me in a better mood occasionally, I find that more often, I’m just bottling up those negative emotions so that I don’t have to think about them. And the problem with bottling up negative emotions is that they won’t stay locked away forever. Eventually, they make themselves known, and the longer they are suppressed, the worse they are.
I find that a good cry can keep these feelings from bottling up. Talking to someone else can help, and so can writing about it, but I’ve found that crying can be very therapeutic. There is something very cleansing about allowing yourself to be sad and upset for a while. I think it’s healthy to admit that you can’t be happy all of the time. Sometimes you just have to let yourself be sad, so that you can later be happy.
This might sound like a sad topic, but crying, while unpleasant during it’s course, is a good thing. I find that when I’m stressed, I can’t actually do anything to fix the situation because I’m too busy feeling stressed. But once I express these feelings by crying, I feel relaxed enough to sit down and work through the things that are worrying me.
We can’t all be happy, all of the time. There are always times where we feel sad, or stressed, or overwhelmed, and we just need to cry and let ourselves be sad for a little while. Crying isn’t fun, but it can be a good thing in the long run. Remember that it’s okay to be sad, and most of all, it’s okay to cry. See you next week!
“Reprinted from Hagel Publications, Inc. dba as Courier Newspapers”