Crying to Relieve Migraines

Let Your Tears Flow

God Designed Your Tears. Stop Fighting Them.

Let me say something that surprises most people when they hear it for the first time.

Crying might be one of the most powerful tools God built into your body for physical healing. And if you live with migraines, this information could change how you approach both the pain and the emotional weight that comes with it.

I have taught this in counseling sessions for years. Science keeps confirming what Scripture already declared. Your tears matter more than you know.

The Connection Between Stress, Suppression, and Migraines

Your body does not separate emotional stress from physical symptoms. When tension builds, and you push past it, stuff it down, or tell yourself to get it together, that stress does not disappear. It relocates.

Cortisol floods your system. Muscles tighten in your neck, jaw, and temples. Your nervous system locks into fight or flight mode and stays there. Over time, that sustained internal pressure becomes one of the most well-documented migraine triggers in clinical research.

The irony catches most people off guard. Trying to appear strong by suppressing your emotions actually creates the physical conditions that trigger more pain. Your body was never built to hold all of that indefinitely.

God gave you a release valve. It sits right behind your eyes.

What Actually Happens When You Cry

Emotional tears function completely differently from the tears your eyes produce when you chop an onion. Researchers at the University of Minnesota found that emotional tears contain measurable concentrations of cortisol and adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), the actual stress chemicals building up in your body. When those tears fall, they carry those stress hormones out with them.

That is not a metaphor. That is biology.

Multiple peer-reviewed studies, including research published in the journal Emotion by Sharman and colleagues in 2020, confirm that crying activates the parasympathetic nervous system, the branch of your nervous system responsible for rest and recovery. Your heart rate slows. Your breathing deepens. Your blood pressure often drops. The muscles around your face and head that contribute directly to migraine tension begin to release.

Research published in PMC by Bylsma, Robinson, and Vingerhoets in 2018 documents how crying triggers the release of endorphins and oxytocin, the same natural pain-relieving and mood-stabilizing chemicals your body produces during exercise and physical comfort. Frontiers in Psychology published research by Gračanin and colleagues in 2014 describing crying as a genuine self-soothing behavior, one that measurably reduces physiological arousal after an emotional episode.

Harvard Health and Verywell Mind both report consistent findings: controlled, completed crying episodes reduce stress hormones, lower blood pressure, improve mood, and promote muscular relaxation. Research from the University of Colorado Anschutz published in December 2024 reinforces these findings with updated data on the biological benefits of crying across multiple body systems.

God designed a biological mechanism for releasing what your body cannot hold. He called it tears.

What the Bible Says About Your Tears

Scripture never treats crying as spiritual failure. The Bible blesses tears, honors them, and presents them as a natural and even sacred part of human experience.

Psalm 56:8 tells us God collects our tears in a bottle and records them in His book. Every tear you have cried in pain, confusion, grief, or exhaustion carries enough weight that the God of the universe keeps a record of it. That is not the language of a God who wants you to stop crying. That is the language of a Father who finds your tears worth treasuring.

John 11:35 gives us two of the most significant words in Scripture. Jesus wept. The Son of God stood at the tomb of His friend with full knowledge that He was about to raise Lazarus from the dead, and He still wept alongside the people who grieved. Jesus did not suppress His sorrow to project spiritual strength. He felt it and He expressed it, because doing so honored the reality of human pain.

Psalm 34:18 promises that God stays close to the brokenhearted and saves those who feel crushed in spirit. He does not require you to collect yourself before He draws near. He moves toward you in the moment the tears fall.

Ecclesiastes 3:4 establishes that a time to weep exists as part of the natural order of a healthy life. Weeping does not contradict faith. It fulfills the design of the One who created both the human heart and the human tear duct.

How Crying Specifically Targets Migraine Tension

When a migraine builds, the physical warning signs often begin with tight muscles in the face, neck, and scalp, shallow breathing, and a nervous system stuck in high alert. Allowing yourself to cry during that window interrupts the cycle before it intensifies.

Here is what happens in the body when you let tears fall during mounting tension.

The constricted muscles around your temples, jaw, and forehead begin to release as the crying response moves through your body. Cortisol levels drop as stress hormones exit through your tears. Your nervous system shifts from sympathetic activation, which drives the fight-or-flight response that tightens everything, to parasympathetic activity, which signals your body to rest. Oxygen delivery to the brain improves as breathing deepens and slows. The physical pressure contributing to migraine pain begins to ease.

None of that requires medication. None of it costs anything. God built every bit of it into your original design.

A Simple Practice When Pressure Starts Building

When you feel emotional weight and physical tension rising together, try this before you reach for anything else.

Find a quiet and dim space where you can stay still for a few minutes. Take several slow breaths and invite the Holy Spirit to meet you exactly where you are. Speak out loud: “Lord, you see me. You designed my tears. I release this to you.” Let the tears come without trying to manage or shorten them. When they subside naturally, stay still. Drink water, stretch your neck and shoulders gently, and rest in the quiet for as long as your situation allows.

This practice does not replace medical care for chronic migraines. It supplements it by addressing the physiological stress component that most migraine management approaches leave completely untouched.

Your Tears Tell the Truth About Who Made You

Stop apologizing for crying. Stop treating every tear as evidence that something has gone wrong with your faith or your emotional strength.

Your tears tell the truth about the God who made you. He created a compassionate Creator in whose image you bear, and compassion feels things deeply. Your capacity to weep reflects His nature in you, not your weakness.

Releasing control through tears honors the One who holds all things together. The next time physical or emotional pressure builds, do not fight your tears. Let them fall as an act of surrender to a Father who collects every single one, designed each biological response that follows, and promises to stay close through all of it.

When Your Emotional and Physical Health Need More Support

Sometimes the stress driving both your emotional pain and your physical symptoms runs deeper than a crying practice can reach alone. Unresolved trauma, chronic anxiety, or prolonged grief can keep cortisol levels elevated in ways that no amount of self-care fully addresses.

That is where professional support makes the difference.

At Are You Ready Counseling, I work with women navigating the intersection of emotional and physical health through a clinical framework grounded entirely in Scripture. Nearly 30 years of experience, licensure in both Illinois and Missouri, and an open Bible in every session. If chronic stress, anxiety, or unresolved pain drives your physical symptoms, counseling addresses the root rather than the surface.

Through Anchored Woman Christian Coaching, women anywhere in the world access the same biblical depth and 30 years of insight without geographical restrictions. Coaching helps you build the emotional and spiritual practices that reduce the chronic stress load your body carries daily. No insurance required. No state limitations. Available to women anywhere.

Both services begin with a free 20-minute consultation that costs you nothing but honesty.

Bring the pain. Bring the exhaustion. Bring up the question of whether what you carry has anywhere to go. Come exactly as you are.

Are You Ready Counseling and Anchored Woman Christian Coaching
Jane Perkins, IL-LCPC, MO-LPC-S

Visit: www.AreYouReadyCounseling.com
Email: jane@areyoureadycounseling.com
Book your free consultation: calendly.com/areyoureadycounseling

References

Sharman, L. S., Dingle, G. A., Vingerhoets, A. J. J. M., & Vanman, E. J. (2020). Physiological responses to stress following tears of sadness. Emotion. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31282699/

Bylsma, L. M., Robinson, M. D., & Vingerhoets, A. J. J. M. (2018). The neurobiology of human crying. PMC – PubMed Central. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6201288/

Gračanin, A., Bylsma, L. M., & Vingerhoets, A. J. J. M. (2014). Is crying a self-soothing behavior? Frontiers in Psychology. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00502/full

Is crying good for you? Harvard Health Blog. (March 1, 2021). https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/is-crying-good-for-you-2021030122020

6 Ways Crying Can Improve Your Mental Health. Verywell Mind. (March 20, 2025). https://www.verywellmind.com/ways-crying-can-improve-your-mental-health-6745650

The Benefits of Crying. News CU Anschutz. (Dec 9, 2024). https://news.cuanschutz.edu/ophthalmology/the-benefits-of-crying

Do not face your struggles alone.

Jane Perkins provides the tools and encouragement to approach Jesus with confidence, receive His immediate help, and live a life anchored in His truth. Reach out today to schedule a complimentary consultation and begin your journey toward profound spiritual growth and lasting peace.

You deserve to experience the powerful, immediate help Jesus offers. Jane Perkins can show you how.