Crying Can Help Relieve Stress, But for Optimal Health You Need
Better Stress-Relieving Tools
May 02, 2013
Story at-a-glance
Tears that are shed due to an emotional response, such as
sadness or extreme happiness, contain a high concentration
of a chemical linked to stress. One theory of why you cry
when you’re sad is that it helps your body release some of
these excess stress chemicals, thereby helping you feel more
calm and relaxed
According to recent research, higher heart rate is tied to
earlier death, even in those who exercise regularly
Compared with those who had a resting heart rate of 50 beats
a minute or less, men with resting heart rates of 71 to 80
beats per minute increased their risk of early death by just
over 50 percent. Those with heart rates between 81 to 90
beats doubled their risk, and a heart rate over 90 was
equated with triple the risk
Energy psychology techniques such as the Emotional Freedom
Technique (EFT) can be very effective by helping you to
actually reprogram your body’s reactions to the unavoidable
stressors of everyday life
The connections between stress and physical health are
undeniable. Studies have found links between acute and/or
chronic stress and a wide variety of health issues, including:
Altered brain chemistry, blood sugar levels and hormonal
balance
Increased risk of cancer and increased tumor growth1
The video above brings up another biological reaction
associated with stress: crying.2
Interestingly, tears that are shed due to an emotional response,
such as sadness or extreme happiness, contain a high
concentration of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH)
— a chemical linked to stress.
One theory of why you cry when you’re sad is that it helps
your body release some of these excess stress chemicals, thereby
helping you feel more calm and relaxed.
While crying is a healthy response to a stressful situation,
settling in for “a good cry” every day is unlikely to quell the
ill effects of stress on your body.
Energy psychology techniques such as the
Emotional
Freedom Technique (EFT) can be very effective by helping you
to actually reprogram your body’s reactions to the
unavoidable stressors of everyday life. Exercising regularly,
getting enough sleep, and meditation are also important “release
valves” that can help you manage your stress.
Higher Heart Rate Tied to Earlier Death
Stress can also jack up your heart rate, making you feel like
you’re running in a hamster wheel even when you’re sitting down.
This too can have a very detrimental effect on your health.
According to recent research,3
higher heart rate is tied to earlier death, even in those who
exercise regularly. According to MedicineNet.com:4
"Should you be worried if your heart rate is high?
Maybe, said study author Dr. Magnus Thorsten Jensen, a
cardiologist at Copenhagen University Hospital Gentofte. 'A
high heart rate does not necessarily mean disease,' he said.
'But we know that there is a very strong and significant
association between high heart rate and life expectancy.'"
Dr. Jensen’s previous research had shown that those with a
resting pulse of 80 beats per minute die as much as four to five
years earlier than those with pulses of 65 beats per minute.
This is actually a remarkable finding, as this difference in
life expectancy is similar to that of having a cancer diagnosis.
Normally, if you exercise regularly you’re likely to have a
much lower resting heart rate than if you do not exercise. As
reported by the featured article:
“That raises the issue of whether higher heart rates
simply reflect the heart-unfriendly lifestyles of couch
potatoes. The new study aimed to answer this question: Does
a higher resting heart rate translate to an earlier death
even among those who are healthy and exercise regularly? The
researchers found that the answer is yes, suggesting that
'resting heart rate is not just a marker of fitness level,
but an independent risk factor,' Jensen said.”
The study included nearly 2,800 men who were followed for 16
years, from middle-age onward. For each 10-beat per minute
increase in the men’s resting heart rate, the risk of death
increased by 16 percent. Compared with those who had a resting
heart rate of 50 beats a minute or less, men with resting heart
rates of 71 to 80 beats per minute increased their risk of early
death by just over 50 percent. Those with heart rates between 81
to 90 beats doubled their risk, and a heart rate over 90 was
equated with triple the risk. Dr. Jensen told The New York
Times:5
“If you have two healthy people exactly the same in
physical fitness, age, blood pressure and so on, the person
with the highest resting heart rate is more likely to have a
shorter life span.”
Based on these results, Dr. Jensen suggests rethinking the
“normal” range of resting heart rate, which is currently set
between 60-100 beats per minute, as the higher range appears to
be a potent indicator of poor health, independent of physical
fitness. So what can you do to improve (i.e. lower) your resting
heart rate?
Two of the most obvious strategies include quitting smoking
and exercising regularly. Even the mere act of reducing the
amount of time you spend sitting down could help. Too much
sitting actually takes a heavier toll on your health than
you might think. According to research6
published last year, reducing the average time you spend sitting
down to less than three hours a day could increase your life
expectancy by as much as two years. Reducing your stress and
being able to go through your day in a relaxed state would also
certainly have a beneficial impact on your heart rate.
EFT — Your Best Defense Against Anxiety and Stress
Even the conservative Center for Disease Control (CDC)
reports that 85 percent of all disease has an emotional element.
Many, if not most people carry emotional scars -- traumas that
can adversely affect your health. Chronic stress is akin to
emotional scarring, and causes ongoing damage to your cells.
According to cellular biologist Dr. Bruce Lipton, the true
secret to life does not lie within your DNA, but rather within
the mechanisms of your cell membrane. Each cell membrane has
receptors that pick up various environmental signals — which
includes your thoughts and emotional state — and this mechanism
controls the "reading" of the genes inside your cells. Your
cells can choose to read or not read the genetic blueprint
depending on the signals being received from the environment.
This is what is now known as epigenetic control, i.e. the
environment within your body — including your emotional terrain
— controls your genetic expression, not the other way
around.
Using techniques like energy psychology, you can correct the
emotional short circuiting that contributes to your chronic
stress. My favorite technique for this is the
Emotional
Freedom Technique (EFT), which is the largest and most
popular version of energy psychology. There are many derivatives
of EFT and some likely work even better but EFT is the one that
I have the most experience with and is the most established.
EFT was developed in the 1990s by Gary Craig, a Stanford
engineer specializing in healing and self-improvement. It’s akin
to acupuncture, which is based on the concept that a vital
energy flows through your body along invisible pathways known as
meridians. EFT stimulates different energy meridian points in
your body by tapping them with your fingertips, while
simultaneously using custom-made verbal affirmations. This can
be done alone or under the supervision of a qualified therapist.7
By doing so, you help your body eliminate emotional “scarring”
and reprogram the way your body responds to emotional stressors.
Since these stressors are usually connected to physical
problems, many people’s diseases and other symptoms can improve
or disappear as well.
In the following video, EFT therapist Julie Schiffman
discusses EFT for stress relief.
While the video above will easily teach you how to do EFT, it
is VERY important to realize that self-treatment for serious
issues is dangerous and NOT recommended. It is dangerous because
it will allow you to falsely conclude that EFT does not work
when nothing could be further from the truth. For serious or
complex issue you need someone to guide you through the process
as there is an incredible art to this process and it typically
takes years of training to develop the skill to tap on
deep-seated, significant issues.
Cry if You Need to, But Address Your Stress for Longer-Term
Benefits
As much as you may try to ignore it, you cannot separate your
wellness from your emotions. Every feeling you have affects some
part of your body, and stress can wreak havoc on your physical
health even if you’re doing everything else “right.”
The classic definition of stress is “any real or imagined
threat, and your body’s response to it.” Celebrations and
tragedies alike can cause a stress response in your body. All of
your feelings, positive or negative, create physiological
changes. Your skin, heart rate, digestion, joints, muscle energy
levels, the hair on your head, and countless cells and systems
you don't even know about change with every emotion.
Fortunately, there are effective tools available to help your
body compensate for the bioelectrical short-circuiting caused by
stress that is the root of so much illness and poor health.
Exercising regularly, getting enough sleep, and meditation are
also important “release valves” that can help you manage your
stress.
The beauty about energy psychology techniques such as the
Emotional
Freedom Technique (EFT) is that it can reprogram
your body’s reactions to the unavoidable stressors of everyday
life, thereby providing a more lasting effect. While it’s easy
to do on your own, it’s advisable to seek the help of a licensed
therapist8
if you’re dealing with trauma-based stress such as PTSD or grief
following the loss of a loved one.