THE UNDERRATED POWER OF CRYING

STEPPING UP to the podium this past August, where he was about to announce that he was leaving his beloved F. C. Barcelona, the only club he’d ever played for, soccer legend Lionel Messi took off his mask to reveal a face in mid-weep. As his wife and children, his teammates, the media and millions of people watching the livestream looked on, Messi’s brain hijacked a carefully staged farewell event. Leo wept.

For Messi, it – likely some combination of the memories, the hopes for the future, the people in the room, the city – was literally too much. So his brain went into action. His amygdala, the brain’s emotional centre, sent a powerful set of signals to his hypothalamus, the pea-sized structure responsible for maintaining stability during times of stress. That then activated the branch of the autonomic nervous system responsible for