Men Do Need to Cry

It helps in processing emotions and is nothing to be ashamed of.

Traditionally men have taken the role of safeguarding the rest of the population. This role comes with the inherent characteristics of showing their boldface to others. If a man shows his vulnerable side then he risks losing his commanding status in front of others. Is this process of maintaining the commanding status good for the overall wellbeing of men? I personally do not think so.

Men do have emotions

Men are quite emotional as well. It is just that they do not express themselves as easily as others. They keep storing a variety of emotions within their subconscious mind and their inability to express them creates emotional turmoil within their mind.

In my opinion, if there is a channeled outlet for the various emotions by means of crying, etc then it has a cathartic effect on the individual.

“Expressing emotions helps in healing the ill effect of an incident that had a negative influence on the person.”

Crying is cathartic

When the emotional turmoil within the mind of the person exceeds a certain limit then it needs to be taken out of the system by any means of catharsis. Crying has been proven to be one such means that helps in removing the emotional charge and bringing the person back to a normal sense of balance.

It has been observed that even in the departure of loved ones, men do not cry. This would create a hindrance in coming to terms with the loss and the person may keep huge baggage of grief within himself.

“Crying helps the person to process the grief and once the emotional charge subsides then the person is able to feel better and look beyond the incident that caused grief”

No need to blame men

We see quite a lot of benefits of crying but it seems men still do not use it to process their emotional charge. It is mainly because their position as being the strong man is negatively impacted when others see their vulnerable side. It might lead people around them to feel that the person is not strong enough to keep his emotions aside in taking decisions. They might also not respect the person.

In actuality respecting another person generally stems from some form of fear. One fears a certain situation and expects someone to help overcome it.

“Respect is our means of supporting those people who take the brunt and help us sail through the tough times or situations.”

We see respect mainly to father figures, soldiers, etc for the very reasons mentioned above. A father provides safety and security along with financial stability while a soldier safeguards the citizens from outside attack. Respect is an automatic response in these cases. It ensures that these people continue doing what they do.

These people who receive respect would not want to show their vulnerable side to others as it would jeopardize the role that they are carrying out. Hence it is not apt to blame men for not crying to relieve themselves of the emotional turmoil.

How to address it?

“One should realize that having an emotional side does not mean that the person would be unable to take stern actions. Actually, processing emotions would free up his mind to take actions based on logic.”

There are some professions that require quite harsh work conditions and the only motivation that keeps people doing their task is to get respect in return. Even for these people relieving themselves of emotional imbalance would go a long way in taking effective decisions. But in case they feel a lowering of respect then they can cry in private. The only thing to keep in mind is not to have guilt or shame in doing so.

Ideally, I would expect everyone to be open about their vulnerable side. We are humans and we need to accept this fact. Living in denial and maintaining a mask would not help in the psychological well-being of the person.

I hope men too realize this fact and emote frequently as it helps in calming the emotional turmoil and help achieve a more balanced emotional state.