Hello and welcome to Five Minutes in Nature with me Liz Scott,
Walking alongside the River X in Exeter.
And I share this path with cyclists and runners,
So you might hear the occasional cyclist or runner or walker going by.
And I'm also,
As I look upstream towards the weir on the River X,
I'm also sharing the river.
There's a paddle boarder making her way now downstream,
Paddling quite hard and making good progress as she goes down the water.
So it's really lovely to watch.
And today's reflection is all about the emotion of crying.
It's something that's been quite close to my heart recently,
And I'll explain that in a moment.
But for me,
Crying is such a healthy,
Healthy expression of emotion.
And I don't know why it is,
But it's one of the few emotions that people feel awkward around and feel awkward expressing.
So if I laugh,
And you're with me,
I don't try and suppress my laughter,
Unless it's in a situation where it's inappropriate to laugh.
But I don't suppress my laughter in front of people.
People welcome laughter and will say,
What are you laughing at?
And we have a conversation about the laughter.
But when it comes to crying,
There is often a sense of not being sure how to manage or deal with someone who's crying.
And so there's a shrinking away,
Or there's a there there,
And there's a trying to stop somebody crying.
And having just experienced a day where I was crying all day,
Pretty much,
I just want to share something about crying,
Which I found really handy,
Really useful.
So the context is that our dear old dog is now reaching the end of his life.
And we've made a decision that we need to put him to sleep.
For some reason,
Although we made the decision nearly a week ago,
Two days ago,
I just found I couldn't stop crying.
It was just a day of tears.
Now,
At some level,
I knew that these tears were absolutely healthy and nourishing.
At some level,
I also knew that these tears weren't just related to the unsettledness I was feeling about our dear old dog and the next steps with him.
I knew that these tears were,
It was almost like a processing going on within me that was being expressed through these tears.
I wasn't at work or in a work environment,
So I was quite free when I needed a cry,
Just a cry.
And the smallest thing would set me off.
And I didn't try and stop it.
And it was the most beautiful thing.
Often,
Particularly this emotion of crying is associated with women,
Often when someone cries,
They can be perceived as emotional,
As though that is a derogatory term.
And I just want to make a case for crying.
Crying is actually a beautiful,
Beautiful expression of emotion.
Crying is an expression,
It can be,
And it was in this case,
An expression of love.
There is so much beauty in the expression of crying and expressing emotion through crying and tears.
If you are around someone that is crying,
The best thing that I found for me when I was having my day of tears is just to be with them,
To be with them and not to flinch at the tears or not to cheer them to try and be happy or not to try and tell them they should be thinking something else.
If you can just be with someone and acknowledge them and say,
I can really see,
I can really see that you're touched with something at the moment and just be there for them.
That is the most special thing in the world.
So I'd be ever so curious to know your reflections on crying,
The emotion of crying,
Whether it's something you do,
You cry,
You're one of these people that doesn't mind crying or whether you're one of these people that tries to suppress crying.
That can be also very interesting to understand what that's like for you.
So do let me know what you are,
But I'm making the case for crying today and the case for being around someone who's crying,
Which is just being there for them.
And tomorrow we'll continue the theme of crying a little bit further.
