Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps. - William Blake.

 When I was in my early 20's "cry daily" was a kind of  mantra for me. My best friend at the time thought this was a terrible idea. To her, (like others) crying had a negative connotation. In her mind I was saying, be sad everyday / cry daily.  Although I can see how the phrase "cry daily" could be interpreted that way, what I meant was - feel something (so powerfully) everyday that will move you to tears.

Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps.

This proverb appealed to me because I have personally experienced sorrow so deeply that it made me laugh. I know (and hope) most of you have laughed so hard that it made you cry. I realize that both laughing and crying are physical results of emotional release.

It takes extreme cases for the opposite emotions – to cause the typical responses of joy (laughter) or sorrow (crying) but this rare phenomenon does exist. My personal experience is that a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day often results in laughter. Laughter and crying are both methods in which your body releases stress. I have personally feel better after emotionally released some sorrow with a laugh or a happiness into a tear.

Emotions are the roots of the human condition. Laughing and crying helps us to empathize and recognize emotions seen/felt by others. A physical reaction to something (emotions) that is intangible and hard to communicate.

Laugh or cry just understand that- you are feeling.  Therefore you are human; therefore you are alive.

I personally feel that it is better to feel; sorrow or joy – than to feel nothing.

Part 2.

I did some research – Here is the biology behind laughter and crying. Expression of emotion has evolutionary significance.

The reasons why we laugh and the reasons we cry share common roots. Both are human expressions of emotion or methods of social communication. Evolutionarily speaking, these methods increase communication and bonding with those closest to you; thereby improving your chances of survival. Being able to share emotional thoughts and feelings strengthens bonds between people – these visual emotional signals are rooted deep within the human evolutionary fight for survival.

The typical emotional reaction for laughing – out of joy, and for crying - out of sadness). However, both crying and laughing are common reactions to both sadness and joy. The poetic use of the irony of sadness causing laughter and happiness causing tears, is just a testament to Blake’s eloquent writing.

There is another theory about laughter that can justify extreme sadness evoking laughter. It is called, The Incongruity Theory of Humor (ITOH). Basically stating that in the brains desire to understand its environment (also something that can be linked back to human evolution); it is looking for patterns and thereby making predictions.

Here’s how this applies to excess (unexpected) sadness causing laughter.

When something begins in a way that we expect but then suddenly changes we react in laughter. The ITOH says that comedy or laughter is a result of the incongruity between what we expect and what actually happens. Laughter could be thought of as a bio product of learning.

A few more facts about tears, your tear ducts are connected to your hypothalamus and basal ganglia areas of your brain. Both sadness and happiness activate in those areas of the brain as well – allowing for tears to be anatomically (through the brain) and emotionally connected to your tears.

In conclusion, I hope everyone feels something regularly (not necessarily daily) that invokes a physical reaction, be it crying or laughing; embrace your emotions and be grateful for your ability to feel period. 

May you have an emotional 2014 - I know I will... 

@WilliamBlake @Incongruity_Theory_of_Humor