Latest / Feel Really Good: Empowering Meditations / You Don’t Need a Reason To Let the Tears Flow

Transcript

You Don’t Need a Reason To Let the Tears Flow · Feel Really Good: Empowering Meditations

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Brittany Atlas.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm the creator of Feel Really Good on Substack,
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: and I'm excited to read my article to you today.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: You don't need a reason to let the tears flow.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: The good cry that my body needed without my mind needing to know why.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: I needed to cry today.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I just sat on the couch and sobbed uncontrollably,
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: letting mascara smear down my face and feeling my body shake between breaths.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: On the outside, someone might ask, What happened?
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer would be, Nothing.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: On the outside, someone might ask, Are you okay?
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer would have been, Yeah.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: On the outside, someone might ask, What's wrong?
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer would have been, Absolutely nothing.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Because there was no one thing that happened, and technically, I was perfectly fine.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Was that I felt like I needed to cry.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: There was a heaviness inside me that I couldn't explain to anyone.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: And not because I was trying to be strong and keep something to myself,
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: but because I literally didn't have words for the feelings that were coming up.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: I just needed to let the emotion move through me, riding on salty tears as a cathartic release.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: This has come up a lot for me over the years.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: In the past,
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: if someone was around me,
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'd either hold it in and suppress whatever was trying to surface,
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: or I'd let myself cry and then come up with a million reasons why I was feeling sad.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: I'd even protect myself with excuses for why the tears were falling.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm on my period,
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  SPEAKER_00: or it's something that somebody said to me,
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: or I don't know, I don't really feel well.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: But reflecting on it today, And part of me felt like I was hiding because of that.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: But really, I just needed some space to feel
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Without needing to manage another person's emotions around it.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: And to be honest, I don't even know exactly what I was feeling.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: A little bit of sadness, maybe?
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Mixed with overwhelm?
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Mixed with hopelessness?
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not even sure.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm reaching for words right now to, once again, explain myself.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: But the reality is, sometimes I just need to cry.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: The Release I actually Feel Really Good after I let whatever is being held in out of my body.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: No explanation, no reasons, no excuses, just a simple release of emotion.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Space to let the emotion move through me so that it doesn't get stuck.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Some people say emotions are energy in motion.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: As an overthinker and a perfectionist,
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: I always try to figure out what those emotions are So I can explain to myself
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: or someone else why I need to cry in that moment.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: But the few times I've just let myself ball my eyes out without diving into
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: the story of why those few moments of permission have been so freeing.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: They move me from a state of feeling stuck or unable to step forward.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And they lighten the burden on whatever piece of my heart is feeling heavy.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Crying is self-care.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's really healthy to cry.
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  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't mean everyone has to,
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  SPEAKER_00: but I think it's a healthy expression of emotion if and when tears come to
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: the surface to let them spill out.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's very healthy to just cry sometimes without needing to come up with
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: a reason why.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: As someone who overthinks pretty much everything,
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: I've held back tears more times than I can count because I told myself,
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing's wrong.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: So why do you want to cry right now?
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: And frankly, I think that's bullshit.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: After my husband left for the gym,
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: I sat on the couch feeling low motivation and low energy,
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: and then a wave of sadness came over me without warning.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: I tried to stop it by force and forcing myself to make a decision.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't you read a book right now?
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: But reading seemed like too much.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't you watch something on TV?
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: But picking something out to watch felt too complicated in that moment.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't you get up and take a walk?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: But that felt like too much effort too.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: I kept trying to distract myself from something that needed to move through me.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: And without trying to come up with a reason that those tears were there,
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: because believe me,
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: my overthinking mind really wanted to find one,
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think part of me needed to let go of thinking altogether.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: I do so much thinking constantly that I just needed a moment
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: to let all those extra thoughts go and I just needed to feel.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: No logic needed.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: We don't always need a reason to cry.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing has to be wrong.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: There doesn't have to be a trigger and you can be just fine and still need to cry.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: When it comes up,
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: maybe there's a reason you'll never understand, but Our body knows that it's needed.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: So let yourself cry.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: Let yourself move out of the thinking mind and into your feeling body.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Let what needs to move, move and see what happens.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: It might actually surprise you and leave you feeling pretty damn good.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: A gentle note.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: If you are listening to this and it has stirred something up,
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: please be really kind with yourself.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: And if what you're feeling runs deeper than a passing wave that you just need to cry
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: through,
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  SPEAKER_00: if it lingers or feels too heavy to hold on your own,
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: please reach out to someone you trust or a mental health professional.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: I have a therapist too.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: Asking for support is actually an incredible strength.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for being on this journey with me as I keep coming home to myself.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: I really hope that you're finding your way home too.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Feel free to send me a message or share in the comments what resonated with you most
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: in this article.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I really hope that you're enjoying our weekly meditations as well.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: If you go to this article on Substack,
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: there are also reflection prompts that you can journal about.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: These are available for our paid subscribers and for just less information.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that you enjoyed this article and I look forward to our next shares next week.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: See you then.