The Body Remembers: Why We Really Cry and What Happens When We Don’t Express Our Emotions

Tears carry a much deeper meaning than we usually think.

Crying is by no means a sign of weakness. It is the body's most primal language—a language that speaks in the moments when words are few, but emotions are overflowing.

The human body speaks. It holds memory, instinct, and wisdom. And when we finally begin to listen to its desperate call, healing happens, not just on a soul level, but throughout the entire system.

Let’s explore.

The Body Remembers

Our body stores every single emotion we’ve ever felt. When you don’t express your sadness, abandonment, disappointment, even if you’ve forgotten what caused it, it remains within you as unsettled energy.

If we don’t release these emotions in time, they can manifest as chronic illness, somatic pain, anxiety, or exhaustion that can’t be explained even by medicine, which often attempts to treat it with pills.

We’ve often been taught not to express ourselves. To be strong. To resist. But suppressed emotions never disappear. They simply go deeper inside.

When you cry, you’re quite literally impacting your nervous system. Your body begins to release oxytocin and endogenous opioids, natural painkillers that relax and soothe you.

Tears stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, sending signals to the brain: “It’s safe. There’s no danger.”

The heart rate slows, muscles relax, and the body returns to homeostasis—a state of internal balance.

That moment alone has powerful healing properties.

This is also why many people say they feel better after crying.

Human Tears Under a Microscope

Research has shown that different types of tears (tears of joy, grief, change, or even from cutting onions) appear differently under a microscope.

Tears literally have “fingerprints.”

This means that every emotion leaves a physical trace.

The body remembers.

Energy takes form.

And crying becomes direct evidence that what we feel takes on a visible expression.

For many years, I’ve studied the body, the brain, the subconscious and how they impact our quality of life.

And every time, I come back to the same realization:

We’ve become so disconnected from our natural instincts. We’ve forgotten how to trust our body.

But our body and its systems are incredibly intelligent. Everything works beautifully as long as we don’t interfere.

We don’t think about how to breathe or digest food. Our body does it with perfect harmony.

Digestion, heartbeat, breath, cellular repair, all of it happens outside of our conscious control, yet with remarkable precision.

The body knows how to live. How to protect. How to heal.

But we’ve learned to doubt. We’ve learned to control everything. And through that control, we’ve created chronic inner tension.

We’ve forgotten that the body has its own intelligence.

Let’s look at nature.

When a deer escapes an attack by a predator, it shakes its entire body afterward. This is the nervous system’s natural way of releasing the stress energy. The animal never holds that stress in its body.

It moves. It releases. It lets go of the threat. Then it continues living as if nothing ever happened.

But humans do the opposite. After stress, we stay silent. We don’t move. We don’t express. We go on with life as if everything is “normal.”

But that energy is still trapped inside us.

When we listen to our body, we give ourselves permission to rest, to move, to cry.

Crying helps release specific emotions. It’s a natural response of the body. It flushes out stress hormones (like cortisol), and it activates the parasympathetic nervous system—slowing the heartbeat, relaxing the muscles, and returning the body to balance.

Through crying, we also create new associations. That it’s safe to feel. That we are not in danger. That we don’t need to defend ourselves anymore.

When we cry, we not only release emotional energy, but we also reconnect with the subconscious.

Resistance softens. Struggle dissolves. And we return to the present moment.

But when we don’t listen, the body begins to “speak.”

First with fatigue.

Then anxiety.

Later physical pain.

And finally with illness.

It’s no coincidence that over 90% of diseases come not from external causes, but from internal, unprocessed emotional stress.

In other words, many illnesses are the physical embodiment of unspoken words, unshed tears, and unfelt pain.

The body never lies.

It always tries to say: “You’ve been holding too much for too long.”

And in those moments when we don’t cry, don’t move, don’t release, the energy begins to take other forms:

loss of appetite, insomnia, headaches, numbness, weakened immune function...

The body is tired of staying silent.

Crying is one of the most powerful and natural ways to release emotions but it’s not the only one.

When we cry, we allow the trapped sadness, grief, disappointment or even joy to leave the body without resistance. It impacts the nervous system directly, releasing stress hormones and restoring our inner state.

But there are other ways to release suppressed emotions:

• 🔹 Body shaking or movement – for example, when the body literally trembles or shakes off stress. Just like animals do after a threat.

• 🔹 Vocal expression – yelling, singing, loud exhalation. Sometimes the body wants to scream out what it’s been holding.

• 🔹 Dancing, exercise, or walking – movement allows energy to flow out.

• 🔹 Deep breathing practices – like heart-coherent breathing or transformational breathwork. These can unlock deeply stored emotional layers.

And yet, there’s one truth that connects all of these:

The body must feel safe.

When we create a safe internal space whether through tears or other emotional releases, the body finally breathes.

Whether through crying, movement, or breath they’re all different languages of the same voice within the body that says:

“I’m ready to let go. See me. Feel me. I know how to release.”

We simply need to pay attention to that call.

When we hear the body’s scream when we accept our emotions as natural, not as weakness, that’s the moment when reconnection begins.

Reconnection between body, heart, and soul.

And that reconnection is what brings true freedom, deep healing, and lasting joy.

Written By 

Maria Leoni

This article is the intellectual property of Mind Rise Hub and when sharing it, the author and the source of the article must be mentioned.