FROM BITTER GRIEF, TO TEARS OF JOY: Inspiration For Women In Crisis By Martha Trowbridge

FROM BITTER GRIEF, TO TEARS OF JOY

For many women, tears are sporadic, and generally signify pain. Rejection, failure, loss, shame, betrayal, insult, heartbreak -- these are times we cry. Yet, for those of us ensnared in depression, tears are routine. They are wrenching tears: frustrated, helpless, seemingly endless tears. Often, they signify despair.

Depression's tears erupt from grief -- the overwhelming grief we experience when our lives feel shattered. In many aspects, this grief is similar to grief we feel when a loved one dies. With depression's grief, however, our pain is far more profound: for we are grieving the 'loss' -- the 'death' even -- of our very self!

How bitter are our tears! How utterly, painfully exhausting. And though the prospect of crying is the last notion you want to entertain, consider this: your tears not only have purpose [1], they carry with them the power to be transformative.

Here is the magic key: each time you cry, with all your heart, heed why your Spirit is weeping. Step back, and ask your self: What genuine self-love overture can I make, at this very moment, to show my Spirit I am committed to healing and protecting Her?

Conduct your WingsWork [2] faithfully, and astonishingly, the tears that emerge from your Spirit will shift from bitter tears of grief, to wondrous Tears of Joy.

Tears Of Joy are quite the phenomenon! As they well up within you, at first, you may wonder what you are feeling. How can it be, that the tears that stream from you are 'feel-good' tears?! Yet, there they are. Blessed Tears, manifesting that you are reconnected to the goodness of The Universe. Relieving tears. Tears that celebrate your surges of good feeling, and hope. Tears that assure you that your efforts to reconstruct your Sacred Inner Universe are effective.

Tears that flow as the purity, goodness, energy and excitement of your new life as The Woman You Were Born To Be begin to pulse within you.

Once activated, Tears Of Joy can be as irrepressible as bitter tears. I recall how [happily] embarrassed I felt, constantly weeping at acts of goodness, beauty, kindness, and love. Watching romantic or wholesome movies became quite an event! Ooodles of moist tissue collected in my lap. How puzzled were my dogs and cats! How could Mom be so happy, and be crying? :-)

As you progress in your WingsWork, your Tears Of Joy will regulate. Trust this. In the meantime, enjoy them. Marvel at them. Let them be a source of self-humor. For once your Tears Of Joy pathway opens, a marvelous, monumental transformation within you commences: Negative Emotion, long pent up, will be purged from your Spirit by your Tears Of Joy.

Tears of Joy open up and cleanse traumatized Sacred Inner Space [3]. As this precious Inner Space clears -- and only when it does -- your Spirit can once again accommodate the positive, joyous, blessed and beautiful in life. Imagine: the tears that flow from your heart, flow with delight. How lovely this will be!

Like a pristine, vibrant, utterly soothing mountain stream, Tears Of Joy refresh your Spirit. With one wondrous act of genuine self-love, right now, at this very moment, commence the transformation of your bitter tears of grief, into wondrous, sacred, precious Tears Of Joy.

NOTES

1. Tears cleanse, relieve stress, bring your consciousness to full awareness of the seriousness of your situation, and command that you stop avoiding and start paying genuine loving attention to your self -- if only to stop your tears!

2. WingsWork: The inner work by which you gloriously Rebirth into The Woman You Were Born To Be. This transformation is accomplished by faithfully practicing genuine self-love.

3. Not only do memories of the overwhelming painful emotions and experiences leading to your depression 'fill' your Inner Space, depression, by its very nature, continually feeds your Spirit toxins. It is as if an emotional waste plant were continually streaming refuse into your veins. Using Tears Of Joy to flush out your aching Sacred Inner Space -- even if only a bit at a time -- permits your Spirit the opportunity to fully and freely feel good things, pure things, hope-filled things; all of which infuse and gloriously revitalize your Spirit.