The Art of Laughter and Tears

As I search throughout some site and within the realm of my very mind I ponder on what I should write about. I remember that just minutes before I saw the picture of those two clowns. You know the ones with the laughter adjacent to the other one crying. Thus, this very question came to my mind. How do we laugh and cry; not only psychologically but also physiologically. This question  lead to my next blog concerning laughter and crying. What cause theses two phenomenon. What purpose do they serve? Lastly, do they bring some sort of benefit to us as humans and a society as a whole?

Crying is a more complicated process than one would at first imagine. First of all, there are three different types of tears. Basal tears keep our eyes lubricated constantly. The second type is reflex tears, which are produced when our eyes get irritated, like with onions or when something gets into our eyes. The third kind of tear is produced when the body reacts emotionally to something. Each type of tear contains different amounts of chemical proteins and hormones. Some neurologist have  encountered that the tears brought by emotional triggers contain higher levels of manganese and the hormone prolactin, and this contributes in a reduction of both of these in the body; thus it’s a reactionary tool against depression.

When emotions affect us, the nervous system stimulates the cranial nerve, in the brain and this sends signals to the neurotransmitters to the tear glands. Thus, we cry .The largest tear gland, the lacrimal gland produces the tears of emotion and reflex. Many believe that the body, in times of emotional stress, depends on this gland to release excess amounts of chemicals and hormones, returning it to a stable state.  This leaves the individuals with calm after they finished the waterworks. This proves not only the essence of crying but also its benefits.

Now that we examine the first mask (crying), it time to makes sense of the second one (laughter). How is this emotion triggered? Researchers have discovered that within four- tenths of a second of seeing something humorous, an electrical wave moved through the cerebral cortex of the brain. If the wave took a negative charge, there was laughter. Many areas of the brain are involved in making us laugh. The emotional, the intellectual, and the sensory processing parts of our brain all play our role in stimulating the motor sections of our brain to physically make us laugh. 

There is an old saying that states that "laugher it is the best medicine," this isn’t some old anecdote conceived by some dumbfound mystic for there is some truth behind this claim.  First of all, laughter is a way of relaxing our muscles. The diaphragm, abdominal, respiratory, facial, leg and back muscles all get a workout. Some experts have stated that laughing one hundred times is equal to a ten-minute workout on a rowing machine, or fifteen minutes on an exercise bike. Laughter helps promote healing in the body by lowering blood pressure and increasing blood flow. When we laugh, the production of T -cells that destroy tumors and viruses increase, and more Gamma interferon (which is a disease fighting protein) is released. Laughter has been found to reduce the amount of stress hormones and help us cope with our lives better. When others laugh, sometimes the laughter can be contagious. Everyone around them starts to laugh. Some people, when stressed or upset, go to a funny movie or a comedy club hoping to laugh all of their negative emotions away.

This is actually something that I myself experienced a while back when I was with some friend going to the movie theatre. I’ve just saw someone that I recently got over with and saw her on a date. Not a great start and I began to think about it a bit, and thought to myself I wasn’t going to enjoy the movie due to what I just saw. However when I went to see the movie, its constant moments of sheer comedy and cheap jokes triggered my instinctual amicability for theses senseless jokes and made me forget about what occurred a few hours ago. Comedy for me was the avail I soughed for and it indeed served me well.

Our physiological and emotional well-being isn’t the only things that benefit from the act of laughter. According to some researchers it I also a social tool applied in communication.  Laughter is used in making and strengthening our connections with each other. People that are more dominant, like a boss or head of a family, for example, use more humor than others around them. Laughter becomes away to show power over the emotional climate of the group. When someone is embarrassed or threatened, laughter can defuse the situation by deflecting the anger and accepting humiliation. 

To conclude this post, it seems that laughter as well as crying can be explained by not only psychological but also physiological means. There are various benefits from both emotions. They both seem to benefit the individual emotionally buy soothing emotional stresses cause by the strives of life. They both make great medicines in curing these emotional aches. These emotions even play a vital role in social psychology as a tool to demonstrate power or to appease the moment. Without these two emotions the world would truly loose something worthy of being a human trait. 

Work Cited:

"A Big Mystery: Why do we laugh?" 27 May 1999.

Frey, William H. II. Ph.D. Crying: The Mystery of Tears. Minnesota: Winston Press, 1985.

Greig, John Young Thomson M.A. The Psychology of Laughter and Comedy.

New York: Cooper Square Publishers, 1969.

"How Laughter Works." 13 April 2000.

Lutz, Tom. Crying: The Natural and Cultural History of Tears. New York:

W.W. Norton & Company, 1999.

Moody, Raymond A. Jr., M.D. Laugh after Laugh. Florida: Headwaters Press, 1978.

"Why we laugh."12 March 2000.