“Eveything hurts.” – Michelangelo Antonioni
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What I am suggesting that you do this week may be the hardest task of the whole year–to cry. It is essential that you travel to the bottom of your emotional/spiritual cave and when you’re there, do a little housecleaning.
Crying can be cathartic. Crying can be liberating.
I hadn’t cried in years. I never allowed myself to cry. I stifled the urge to cry. Then one evening I let loose.
What caused me to cry was a scene in the movie “Rudy”. Specifically, I cried because this one particular scene moved me: the crowd was chanting, the music swelled, and Rudy, in a moment of complete vindication for a lifetime of suffering, he ran onto the field at Notre Dame stadium to play…
Somehow it resonated with me. And once I felt the urge to cry I didn’t try to stifle it. I let it happen, and when the floodgates opened I let them stay open. I could have made myself stop, but I didn’t.
And all sort of, well—stuff—came up. I cried over a girl I lost, a job I didn’t get, my mother’s death, my nephew’s physical condition and I cried for reasons that I didn’t even understand.
And when I was done crying I was spent. Exhausted. But somehow satisfied…and calm.
Did I feel better when I was done? Yes. I was somehow relieved…
TASK:
This week you try to cry. How? You’ll have to figure it out. For me it’s Rudy, or It’s A Wonderful Life, or The Fault of In Our Stars. Sorry. But it doesn’t have to be a movie. It can be a passage in a book, or a photograph, or a home movie. Home movies are particularly effective, because nothing triggers raw emotion like family…it may not happen right away, but keep at it. And once you’re crying, let yourself go. Shudder. Wail. Fall to the floor. Empty the well. And write down how you feel.
Photo Credit: Andy Bullock/flickr