“But a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more.”Hans Christian Andersen, The Little Mermaid

I’ve done a lot of crying over the last year. I miss my dad. Often, I’ve tried to hide my tears from my son, and when I do cry in front of him, I tend to apologise afterwards. Why is that?

Recently, I listened to a TED Health talk on the power of tears. The presenter pointed out something I’d never really thought about – that tears, as we grow up, are almost always linked to something bad happening. You fall over and hurt yourself, and you cry. You draw on the wall, get told off, and you cry. Your friend is hurt, or stops talking to you, and you cry.

She moved on then to talk about her tears of joy when she gave birth to her first daughter. Tears are uniquely human. We all know the feeling of relief after a good cry. So, why do we try so hard to hide away the tears? What if we could think instead about those tears being a part of a healing process? Or perhaps they’re part of preventative health, to stop our emotions from building up to such a point that they cause damage in some way?

I found this talk really thought-provoking, and I’m excited to take it into my life, and thinking of tears as a natural part of life, rather than as a sign that something bad has happened.

What has caused you to cry tears of joy?

© Sue Palmer, The Horse Physio, 2021

Treating your horse with care, connection, curiosity, and compassion