I think tears are one of the most beautiful expressions in the world. I constantly marvel at our bodies and what they are designed to do. I also often feel sad that we relegate these gifts to the realm of shameful and wrong, suppressing them rather than revering the incredible intelligence of our bodies.

I tell my clients all the time how beautiful I think it is when they cry; obviously not because they are hurting, but because they are surrendering enough to let all that unexpressed emotion come up and out. I get some strange looks, but that’s just one part of the work that I love and embrace wholeheartedly: holding space for everything society teaches us to judge and make wrong, and instead transforming it into beauty through unconditional love. I love and revere every strange and shadowy thing that moves us toward greater healing. Seriously.

And so I’m on a mission to reframe the ugly cry. And I even like that we call it that because A. everyone 100% knows what you mean when you say it. B. we need to own the ugly and dark, and be okay with seeing and holding those parts of ourselves; and C. the majority of our healing work ain’t pretty, so let’s ditch the spiritual beauty contest and get up close and personal with all the powerful shadow that gets released and revealed when we sob within an inch of our lives.

Yes it’s painful. Yes it’s ugly. Yes it’s so uncontrollably vulnerable. And in that lies the magic of accessing every suppressed emotion in one chaotic and tumultuous cavalcade. In my world, the ugly cry is pure sovereignty in motion.