The world is in need of healing. Not just in terms of its infrastructural requirements, but its inhabitants, the earthlings. The need for people to embrace their own emotions is a crucial factor in developing a better self, believes author and journalist Maria Shriver. Bodybuilding legend Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s ex-wife and former first lady of California, Maria Shriver has recently written at length about the essence of vulnerability and wellness in the act of crying. Here is Maria Shriver tackling the taboo surrounding crying and upholding its values as a way to overall good health.

The need to suppress emotions all the time could be detrimental. Maria Shriver, in her latest news update, detailed the times she felt a strong sense of gratitude and wholesomeness every time someone cried in front of her. By sharing her own vulnerability, Shriver informed billions about the potential benefits it could bring internally.

Maria Shriver shares the secret to healing the world

“Crying does not indicate that you are weak. Since birth, it has always been a sign that you are alive – Charlotte Bronte”, quoted Maria Shriver in her opening line. Shriver wrote in her latest edition of Sunday Paper, “The world is crying out. I believe it’s asking us to look at our own internal infrastructure”, highlighting the urgency of it. She continues, “look at the climate within ourselves and look at what’s going on in the house we have built for ourselves... We cannot build a new and better world without building a new and better world within ourselves”.

She believed the only way to do so will require emotional growth and evolution. While dismissing the notion that crying is for the weak, she believed it is no less than a courageous act to let the tears flow.

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The world that Shriver grew up in asked her not to care about her own emotional self-being, but instead fix the societal ills and be of service to mankind. While those values were crucial in her formative years, she has since come to realize the importance of embracing emotions with open arms.

Shriver appeals to the world to be more open

A huge moment in Shriver’s life was in 2011 when disturbing news about her former husband was revealed. Her world turned upside down overnight. Shriver and Schwarzenegger split up after 25 years of marriage, and the emotional toll was so heavy that she went to a convent and cried for hours. She then learned the importance of healing and what must be done to achieve it.

Shriver announces that she will be crying as it’s one of Pope Francis’ suggestions for Lent. But she has since realized the far greater implications of crying. It has the strength it has to transform the whole world. If only more people opened up to one another.

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