[00:00:00] Hey, love. Welcome back to the Regulated Life. This is your daily raw regulation. Today's question, what if you let yourself cry? So breathe with me. Settle in. Be here. Here's what I know to be true. You've been holding back tears for so long, you've forgotten what it feels like to just let them fall. You swallow them down, you blink them back.
You tell yourself, not now. I don't have time. I'll fall apart if I start. But here's the thing. What if crying isn't falling apart? What if it's the opposite? What if crying is how your body completes the stress cycle? How your nervous system releases, what it's been holding, how you cleanse and reset and [00:01:00] come back to yourself?
Tears aren't weakness. Tears are completion. And if no one's told you this lately, you're allowed to cry right now in the middle of your day, even if nothing's wrong, you don't have to earn the right to release. You just have to allow it. What if you let yourself cry? Your body is designed to cry. It's a biological release mechanism.
When you cry, your body releases stress hormones through your tears. It activates your parasympathetic nervous system. The rest and digest response. It signals to your brain, we're safe, we can let go, but when you hold tears back, you're telling your nervous system. We're not safe to feel. We have to keep holding on, and that, that keeps you stuck in survival mode.
Here's what I want [00:02:00] you to understand. Crying doesn't make you weak. It makes you human. And the people who tell you to stop crying or pull yourself together,
they're uncomfortable with their emotions, not yours. You don't owe anyone emotional control. You don't have to keep it together for everyone else's comfort. The bathroom is your space, and in this space, you get to feel, you get to release, you get to cry without apology.
Let's practice giving yourself permission to cry. Right now, you don't have to force tears. You don't have to make yourself cry. This is just about softening the resistance, both hands on your heart. Feel your heartbeat. Breathe in for four, [00:03:00] hold for four out for six.
As you breathe, I want you to ask yourself, what have I been holding back? Don't answer with your head. Just feel what your body wants to say. Breathe.
What am I afraid will happen if I let myself cry?
Notice what comes up. Fear of being weak. Fear of not being able to stop fear of someone seeing, breathe into it.
Now say this with me out loud or silently. It's safe to cry. Breathe[00:04:00]
crying isn't falling apart. It's letting go.
Breathe.
My tears are medicine, not weakness.
One more deep breath in. Hold it and release. Let your exhale be audible, like a sigh. Ah. If tears come let them. If they don't, that's okay too.
You're just teaching your body that it's safe to soften. Take that with you. Your tears matter. Your grief matters. Your release matters. You don't have to hold it together all the time.
Room by room, [00:05:00] breath by breath. See you tomorrow.
