by Melinda Seley, PLPC
Tears have a complicated place in our society. Have you ever had a good cry, and felt (strangely) a little bit better afterwards? Well, there is a scientific reason why that is the case.
In 2010, photographer Rose-Lynn Fisher worked on an amazing photography project called Topography of Tears. In this multi-year long project, she collected and examined more than 100 human tears under a microscope. Among others, she studied tears shed while laughing, grieving, and responding to change, as well as basal tears (those meant to keep the eye lubricated) and reflex tears (those that respond to an irritant in the eye).
Fascinatingly, Fisher found that the appearance of tears is different based on what elicits them; and not only is their appearance different, but the physical composition also varies – most notably, emotional tears contain the neurotransmitter leucine encephalin, a natural painkiller that is released when the body is under stress to help improve one’s mood.
Our physical bodies are so intricately connected to our emotions that a chemical is released to help heal us emotionally when we cry!
So this remarkable discovery makes me wonder – when we view crying as weakness, what are we really doing? Why do we have a tendency in our culture, as well as other cultures, to view crying as something to be squelched, and prohibit our bodies from naturally responding to distress? What kind of healing are we missing out on? It seems that we are rejecting the very thing that can actually physically aid in our healing! If this is you, what does it look like to let those tears flow? What do you need or to believe in order to do that?
{A Smithsonian article describing Fisher’s project in more detail can be found here – I encourage you to read the whole thing!}