Anastasia Achilleos On The Deep Release Of Laughter And Tears During Troubled Times
Anastasia Achilleos on how our laughter and tears reveal our inner world – and how to navigate these emotions in turbulent times
WhatsApp groups are destinations that I seem to have frequented more than usual in the past weeks. They’ve given me a sense of community here in the UAE, that as an expat, I am deeply grateful for. Especially Women’s Tribe.
One recent message stood out and made complete sense to me. It said: “The ride started and I weirdly couldn’t stop laughing. Uncontrollably. As the ride stopped, it slowly changed from laughing into sobbing. Never has a woman looked more unhinged.”
Seemingly an unusual emotional moment. Yet biologically it makes perfect sense. Can tears be our superpower? When we laugh deeply or cry, the vagus nerve, the major communication pathway between brain and body, becomes activated. Heart rate begins to slow, breathing changes rhythm, and the body shifts away from stress chemistry toward restoration.
The nervous system often begins with laughter because it feels safer. Laughter is socially acceptable, even expected. Yet beneath it there may be deeper emotions waiting to move, sadness, relief, overwhelm, or the release that comes when the body finally feels safe enough to let go.
From a neurological perspective, both laughter and crying stimulate the vagus nerve, helping the nervous system return to regulation. Modern neuroscience now confirms what many healing traditions have long understood: the nervous system is constantly searching for ways to return to balance.
Emotional release is therefore not simply psychological. It is physiological. It seems the power of peptides is innate. Research analysing emotional tears has found elevated levels of stress-related compounds including cortisol and adrenocorticotropic hormone. Emotional tears also contain leucine enkephalin, a natural opioid peptide that helps regulate pain.
Women tend to have higher levels of prolactin, a hormone produced by the pituitary gland that influences emotional processing and tear production. Testosterone, by contrast, has been shown to inhibit crying. This partly explains why women cry more frequently than men.
Water is also a powerful regulator of the nervous system. Neuroscientists studying its psychological effects refer to the phenomenon known as Blue Mind. Research led by marine biologist Dr Wallace J Nichols shows that proximity to water shifts the brain toward calmer alpha brain wave patterns associated with relaxation and clarity. Perhaps this is why so many of us instinctively gravitate toward water when emotions surface.
Understanding this biology is especially important when it comes to children and teenagers, particularly during turbulent times in our lives. Teaching children that it is safe to cry, laugh, and express what they feel gives them a profound ability to trust their own nervous system. It is a message I have consciously woven into my children’s lives. Hearing them repeat it now as teenagers fills me with hope for their future relationship with themselves, one grounded in trust, authenticity, and the quiet intelligence of self-regulation.
Sometimes the most powerful wisdom we can offer our children is the simplest: Better out than in.
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From Harper’s Bazaar Arabia April 2026 Issue