One of the Greatest Gifts. Giving Yourself or Someone Else Permission to Cry...

Life isn't always smooth sailing, quite the contray... You can be sure life will be full of challenges, ups and downs, highs and lows, it is the nature of existence. Even though this is the case we can learn to smooth out the challenges and implement techniques to ensure we are able to bounce back with more resilience... To make sure we don't stay in the lows as long and that we can maintain our highs for longer, although this takes practice.

Giving Yourself Permission To Cry

Sometimes the greatest way to make sure we don't get bogged down in the dumps for to long, to ensure we don't sufficate in our darkness is by giving ourselves permission to cry.

As a friend of mine put it recently.... Sometimes you need to

Allow yourself to shed unashamed tears....

It can be a great gift to yourself and a healing process.

I'm not suggesting you stay in this space for a long time, I'm not suggesting you wallow or drown in your tears.... But it can be a very healing process for your whole body, mind and spirit. It can be a great release, an acknowledgement of how you are feeling, a realisation that yes, you are human, you feel and that's ok.

Sometimes it's best not to cry alone....

Asking For Support

Over the past week I've had the opportunity to shed many unashamed tears with the overwhelming feelings that come along with someone you love being in hospital, but I also discovered after many tears alone I didn't want to cry alone anymore.

And it was then that I realised how important it is at times to be able to reach out for support from those around you, and you don't want just anyone... There may be many offers (sometimes our journey can be to learn to ask and receive, especially if we are used to healing, giving and looking after everyone else) but you may want to be selective with who you allow yourself to cry with.

It's important that you feel safe, unjudged and unashamed to let it out so that your tears can be healing. Most importantly you should feel supported.

The Gift Of Being There For Someone When They Need To Cry

Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child.

The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbour was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife.

Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbour, the little boy said,

'Nothing, I just helped him cry'

This story really embodies to simplicity, beauty and gift that it is of just being there for someone when they need to cry.

It's the gift of allowing them to shed their tears.
It's the gift of allowing them to not feel alone.
It's the gift of allowing them to honour how they feel.
It's the gift of allowing them to feel unashamed of their tears.
It's the gift of saying not much at all, and just letting them cry.

It's one of the Greatest Gifts you can give in this world, and it's free.