Limbic Resonance

Have you ever noticed that if your best friend is really sad, you start to feel a little bit sad too? Or if someone starts laughing really hard, you cannot help but laugh? This is called limbic resonance. Our brains are actually leaky! We send out invisible signals that other people's bodies pick up. It helps us feel what other people feel so we can take care of each other. It is like our hearts are all talking to each other without using any words at all.

Our hearts are all talking to each other without using any words. Put two metronomes on the same table. They will sync. Not because they decided to. Because the table is vibrating and the vibrations pull them into rhythm. You are a metronome. Every person in the room is a metronome. And the room is the table. This is why a calm person calms a room. This is why an anxious person makes a room anxious. This is why laughter is contagious and yawns are contagious and grief is contagious. You are not separate. You are leaking. Everyone is leaking. And what leaks out of you becomes the weather in the room. Choose your signal carefully. Because the room is always listening.

Limbic resonance: deep emotional states shared via the hypothalamus, amygdala, and hippocampus. Hyperscanning shows brain waves and heart rates literally sync during rapport. An evolutionarily ancient system from mammalian mother-offspring bonding. Choose your signal carefully. Because the room is always listening.

SOUND: A huge crowd cheering together: individual voices becoming one sound.

SMELL: A baby's scent that makes everyone feel gentle: chemistry bypassing the intellect.

TASTE: A family-style meal where everyone eats the same thing: synchrony through the stomach.

TOUCH: A group hug where everyone's hearts are close: resonance through proximity.

SIGHT: Seeing someone yawn and then yawning yourself: proof that the nervous system is contagious.

BODY: Walking in step with a friend without trying: two bodies agreeing on a rhythm neither one chose.

Music: Am I Okay? by Megan Moroney

Part of Emotion & Feeling — CONSCIOUSNESS — Education Revelation