I was watching a documentary on Netflix and I was listening to a group of young people singing beautifully. The harmony they managed to create was chilling, and without realizing it, my eyes watered. Of course, each of us is different and the way our bodies react to different events and emotions can vary greatly. Not everyone cries at the same things and it’s perfectly normal.
I must admit, I get emotional when I hear a voice with a wonderful timbre, when an athlete achieves a great performance, when the heroine arrives at the last moment and saves him, and they both realize that they have found each other.
My inquisitive mind and inquiring spirit immediately led me to the question: why do we weep at beauty, at heroism, at music?
I read several articles to search for this “why”. Many elements were familiar to me, but I discovered others that I found interesting and would love to share them with you.
In addition to the familiar and ‘logical’ neurotransmitters like dopamine – which is triggered by a musical or sporting climax and gives us that thrill and goosebumps – or oxytocin, the neurotransmitter of connection and belonging, which is released intensely during hymns, collective sporting performances and heroic moments, there’s another interesting element: prolactin – a hormone whose levels rise after orgasm or emotional crying.
It made me curious.
What is it and why is it being released?
What actually happens?
It turns out that tears triggered by music, hymns or heroic moments fall into the category of ‘tears of awe’. They are tears of awe, elevation, meaning.
The brain perceives that moment as bigger than the individual, connected to something collective and charged with deep meaning.
The brain says: it’s too beautiful to be processed rationally.
This is where the limbic system comes in, which processes emotion before conscious thought.
The body doesn’t know “beautiful”, “heroic” or “sublime”, but it knows intensity.
For the nervous system, emotional crying and profound aesthetic experiences have something in common: the emotion is strong, non-threatening and beyond cognitive processing.
The mind says, “It’s nice.”
The body says, “It’s a lot.”
And when the emotion is ‘too much’, the body needs to discharge it, integrate it and prevent overload of the nervous system.
That’s where prolactin comes in.
It occurs after the emotion has reached a threshold.
In plain English, prolactin says:
“I’ve made it to the top. Now it’s safe to come down.”
It’s the hormone that reduces over-activation, calms the limbic system and moves the body from ‘I feel a lot’ to ‘I can be with what I felt‘.
Don’t you find it interesting?
So, the next time you tear up at a song or a moment that “shouldn’t” affect you, don’t rush to pull yourself together and don’t be shy about showing it.
Stay there.
Feel.
Forget it.
You’re not crying because you’re weak. You cry because your nervous system recognizes meaning before your mind can explain it.
And that, perhaps, is one of the most beautiful forms of intelligence we have.
A day with real emotions,
Claudiu
