TURNING WEAKNESS INTO STRENGTH: THE BENEFITS OF SHEDDING EMOTIONAL TEARS

This study investigated the benefits of the human experience of shedding emotional tears in the physiological, psychological and social perspectives. Two hundred twenty randomly chosen adolescents aging sixteen to nineteen years old wherein one hundred fifty nine are females and sixty one are males participated in this research. Descriptive statistics of frequencies and percentages were used to describe this human experience of shedding emotional tears. Focus Group Discussions with 20 students were conducted to validate the data gathered from the survey. Likewise, the personal observations of the researcher as a practicing counselor and youth minister were considered in this study. Results reveal that crying is indeed beneficial to humans because such relieves the pain that they are feeling. Crying helps in releasing stress and it eases the pain. Majority of the research participants believe that crying is good for the heart because it makes them feel better afterwards. Others may look at it as a weakness that is why they hold back their tears. However, shedding emotional tears becomes strength when it binds people together. To give people a venue to do the good cry so that crying becomes very beneficial to many, a workshop module which is the output of this study was conceptualized. It is entitled “Shedding Emotional Tears: Understanding Emotional Communication.”