Flight Chronicles of the Hummingbird - Day 46 – 5-22-2021 - Intuition Through Tears?

Pixabay - Leandro De Carvalho

Intuition Through Tears?

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. Tears are an important factor and necessity of being human…period.

Our human bodies are set up to do many things that society and the ways we are brought up in our families of origin force out of us. Like, who we are as sexual beings and the fact that we are meant to cry.

For many years, it has frustrated me that boys are taught that they are sissies, pussies, not a man or they need to learn how to be a man, too emotional, not good enough or whatever was the language at the time of family teachings if they cried. And, wow, this starts at such an early age, like 4 or 5.

The challenge is that none of this is true…in fact it is complete bullshit. Yes, I said it. Bullshit.

And here is why.

As humans, we are set up to physically protect ourselves and keep our bodies in balance. I believe tears are part of that system, also including the fight/flight stress response and shaking after a dangerous encounter or potentially dangerous situation (which we subconsciously can’t do because we might look stupid doing it).

There is so much here, I will try to keep it as brief as possible.

Ok, so as far as tears (yes, I’m going to give some teachings in this input). There are many reasons for tears. From Healthline.com - We have what are called Basal Tears – always in our eyes to protect them from debris and keep them lubricated and nourished. We have Reflex Tears – these form when we are exposed to irritants like smoke or onion fumes. And then my favorite, the ones that have gotten me through everything, deep into the truth of my Self and these are Emotional Tears - produced when you’re sad, happy, or feeling other intense emotions.

There may be biological, social, and psychological factors involved with why we have Emotional Tears. Some researchers believe that crying is a social signal to get help from others when you’re in pain, sad, or feeling any type of distress or extreme emotion. Often, when you cry, it prompts others to offer support, which makes you feel better. There is evidence that emotional tears contain additional proteins and hormones that aren’t found in the two other types of tears. These may have relaxing or pain-relieving effects that help regulate the body and help it return to its normal state.

Also, Agingcare.com - Tears help humans eliminate stress hormones like cortisol that build up during times of emotional turmoil that can wreak havoc on the body. Crying is both a physical and emotional release that helps humans start over with a blank slate. I’d like to add the idea that they also help us to heal.

Now you know there are physiological, social and psychological reasons that tears actually help us, now the question becomes, “Well, I haven’t been able to cry for years. It’s like my tears are locked up inside and I can’t get them to come out even when or if I want them to.”

Reason being is that If you can't cry at all, you might have a hard time working through your own emotions, and also find it tough to connect with others. There are many reasons why this happens due to extreme trauma, certain types of depression, repressed emotions, and of course personal beliefs about crying.

So what can you do to start the healing work through crying?

Take time to explore your reactions

If you’ve gotten used to suppressing or avoiding intense feelings, you might not notice much of a reaction when faced with a deeply emotional situation, such as losing someone you love or missing out on a dream opportunity. You might have a habit of shrugging off distress instead.

Get more comfortable with your emotions

It’s hard to express emotions when you feel afraid of them or confused by them since this generally leads you to block them off instead. To practice acknowledging and accepting your emotions, don’t deny them. Instead, try:

• Saying how you feel out loud. Even if it’s just to yourself, you can say “I feel angry,” “I feel sad,” or “I feel hurt.”
• Writing your feelings down. Keeping a journal can help you connect with emotions in the moment, but it also allows you to practice describing them to yourself before you share them with others.
• Remembering it’s normal. Remind yourself it’s OK to have emotions, even intense ones.

Find a safe space to let your feelings out

You may not feel comfortable expressing emotions in public, and that’s totally OK. It can take time before sharing emotions with anyone else becomes possible, much less natural. Avoiding your emotions entirely isn’t the answer, either. Try to find a private place where you can sort through feelings and express intense emotions and tears. This might be your bedroom, a quiet spot in nature where you’re always alone, or anywhere else you know you won’t be bothered.

Talk to people you trust

Once you get more comfortable with your emotions on your own, you can try sharing these feelings with loved ones or friends. There’s nothing wrong with starting small. You might, for example, open up to your partner or best friend before anyone else. Talking to others about how you feel can help normalize your emotions, since chances are good they can offer some validation around those feelings or share similar experiences of their own. When it feels easier to talk about feelings, you might notice it becomes easier to express them in other ways, too — including crying.

Let yourself be moved

This might not always work, but watching a tearjerker or listening to moving or sad music can sometimes bring on the tears. If you want to practice crying, watching or hearing another person’s emotional experience can foster comfort with shedding some tears of your own. Bonus: Watching deeply emotional movies can also increase your empathy and compassion for others. Healthline.com

Plus, there is always the option to seek out professional help.

Now, the title says something about intuition, what’s that all about?

The reason I brought that up is from my own experience. Now, I am definitely able to cry. I probably cried a lot more when I was younger as I was going through everything, to include watching a sappy commercial (good thing I don’t watch TV anymore). As I healed I actually didn’t cry as much, and I also was able to connect with my intuition.

You see, what I believe happened is that there was a point that even though I cried, I was also totally disconnected from my own emotions. I found that I was well aware of everyone else, just couldn’t get to mine. I was numb, in a lot of pain and just wanted to isolate…and cry.

Of course, that ended up backfiring. It wasn’t until I released all of the pent-up emotions I had, through crying differently, that ideas, situations, possibilities started to occur more and more and I learned how to trust myself more and more.

It was a really cool shift and I’m so grateful for it.

So, I hope this little piece helped out a bit for you to understand what tears are really about and by the way, finally, people are starting to realize that crying isn’t weak. You really do have to be a strong person to cry.