Crying for your soul’s sake – Attention all men

One of the greatest pleasures in life is witnessing the tears of someone becoming choked with emotion by a touching moment, or as they recall a fond memory of a loved one who has past. Because it is at these times that we get to witness someone getting in touch with their higher sensibilities — an awareness of what is really important in life — a place where money, prestige and all externality have absolutely no value. That sacred of all places is known as soul consciousness.

Soul consciousness is where all matter of irregularities, anomalies, inconsistencies, and the utterly insane, become normalised, or truly understood for the very first time. It is from this unique reference point of soul consciousness that everything becomes crystal clear; every living being becomes valued; every thing suddenly has relevance, and every moment of our past becomes immortalised on the “chalk board” of our mind as if we knew something all along! It is in this sacred space that epiphanies become the currency to even more priceless truths and we feel abundantly wealthy in spirit.

Crying tears of joy, hope or sadness over someone allows the soul to shine through our eyes like never before, as if the tears have somehow cleared the dust from the compromised vision of mundanity that had previously clouded our vision. Crying helps us to shed layers of false ego (body ego), and allows us to stand naked before the world, revealing our true glorious higher self. All nomenclature, fame and distinction fade into oblivion as the truth of soul sets us free to sore to the heavens.

In all the world’s spiritual traditions we hear of saints crying in ecstasy in love of God. Mothers all over the world, in every species, cry in joy at their baby’s progress. Crying is natural and healthy, and if I understand correctly, it appears to be an absolute requirement for our full spiritual awakening.

And yet, many of us men still feel a sense of reservation to cry in public, out of fear that we will be misunderstood or our reputation as a “man” tarnished. I know there have been so many times I have wanted to cry, but held back, and in doing so, I literally shut the floodgates down and denied myself this liberating and cleansing experience for the soul. I have even noticed myself doing this in private, if I am watching a movie that has stirred my emotions. Rather then let the tears flow, I have contained my self. Why? I am sure I am not the only man that has done this.

Fortunately for us men, we are not alone in such life challenges. Enter the female species. Women are way more in touch with their emotions and don’t feel so awkward or inhibited in expressing their true feelings with tears. Alchemically, the water element is feminine. Cooling tears therefore represent the yin or feminine energy flowing through our bodies. When tears are hot, it simply means the water element is fused with fire as a result of anger or frustration.

All men, need to balance their yang or fire energy with the cooling and nurturing qualities of yin, expressed as tears of joy and hope. There is nothing wrong with this, and frankly speaking, to deny the body this essential output is downright unhealthy for our body, mind and soul.

A study by Dr William H. Frey II, a biochemist at the St Paul-Ramsey Medical Centre in Minnesota, found that emotional tears contained more of the protein-based hormones prolactin, adrenocorticotropic hormone, and leucine enkephalin (a natural painkiller), all of which are produced by our body when under stress.

Stress has been linked to a number of health problems including heart disease, high blood pressure, type-2 diabetes and obesity. According to the Minnesota study, crying can help to wash chemicals linked to stress out of our body, one of the reasons we feel much better after a good cry.

“Crying can help release tension and stress, as well as expressing emotions,” says Dr Abigael San, chartered clinical psychologist. “When you’re upset and stressed, you have an imbalance and build up of chemicals in the body and crying helps to reduce that.”

It is interesting to note that these studies also revealed that:

• 88.8 per cent of people feel better after crying, with 8.4 per cent feeling worse.
• On average women cry 47 times a year and men a mere seven

So in closing, I propose there needs to be a movement for encouraging men to cry more. I have done laughter yoga, why not crying yoga? My spirtual teacher, Srila Prabhupada said that when praying to God, we should, “cry like a baby cries for its mother.”

So men, hug your wife or girlfriend tight and allow her nurturing energy to heal your soul. Learn to cry.

Study References