What your Tears are trying to tell you
Posted on 2nd April 2025 at 12:06
We think tears are just water, but what if they are signposts of the soul? Markers on the long, winding road of grief, each droplet carrying both sorrow and wisdom.
In my work as a grief companion, I often sit with those who apologise for their tears, and I always gently remind them: tears are sacred. They are your body's way of speaking when words are too heavy. They are medicine, release, and guidance, all at once.
Did you know that the very composition of emotional tears is different from other tears?
Emotional tears carry stress hormones and natural painkillers, helping to ease the burden we carry inside. Our bodies, in their quiet wisdom, know how to help us heal, drop by shimmering drop.
An acronym for TEARS
This understanding inspired me to create an acronym for TEARS, to help guide you through the very steps that grief asks us to walk:
T - To trust the reality of loss. This doesn't happen all at once. It arrives slowly, like dawn. We resist it, then we surrender. The tears are there to soften that truth.
E - To experience the pain of loss. There is no shortcut. Only through, never around. Your tears are part of this sacred process: cleansing, releasing, making space.
A - To adjust to a new life without the person you love. Not forgetting them, never replacing them, but learning how to hold their memory while living forward.
R - To reinvest in life, little by little. In time, you will feel the call to re-engage with the world. Tears may still come, but they will fall alongside moments of hope and possibility.
S - To step forward with intention and hope. You carry your grief with you, but it no longer weighs quite so heavily. Each tear that has fallen has lightened the load, allowing you to move with purpose.
Honour those tears.
So next time you find yourself crying, I invite you to honour those tears.
They are not weakness. They are wisdom. They are proof that love was here.
And love never leaves.
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