A few weeks ago, I asked in a Facebook post for people to suggest ‘The Saddest Song Ever Written.’ It had been an ongoing debate between my friend and I – me a staunch supporter of ‘He Stopped Loving Her Today’ and him just as committed to ‘Seven Spanish Angels.’ Both sad enough to make a grown man cry.

After I had that post up for a while and people kept adding their favorite tearjerkers, the post came up in a conversation between my daughter and I. Well, really not a conversation. I mentioned it and she said, ‘Yeah, why?’ As in, why would you want to listen to songs that made you cry?

I didn’t really have an answer to that. But, of course, now I’ve thought about it.

A different friend had a Facebook post a couple months back asking people to join him in writing a list of 20 Things I Believe to Be True. On my list, number one was the following: When you armor yourself against negative emotions, you unintentionally armor yourself against all emotions.

I stole the heart of that notion from Brene Brown. Simply, you can’t choose which emotions you are going to feel and which ones you aren’t. If you steel yourself against feeling sad, you are also blocking happiness.

I’m sure I’m not the only person who needs to practice crying. I’m such a naturally emotional person that I have worked hard to guard myself against the emotions that bring tears and that has possibly been to the detriment of a lot of emotions that would have been uplifting.

So, yes, sometimes you need to cry. Sometimes you need to be vulnerable. Sometimes you just need to let go.

If you aren’t good at it, find a hardcore emotional song like the one’s mentioned above and really listen to the lyrics and understand the story. Works every time! I helped you out by creating a playlist from suggestions made by my Facebook connections. One thing that I didn’t take into account was that some songs have particular emotional attachment based on people’s life circumstances. I’ve included those songs without comment. I do believe though that some songs are sad no matter what <hard stop>

Thanks to all that contributed. If you have one to add, please comment.

Enjoy some tears! Unarmor yourself and embrace all the emotions!