What Is Forgiveness?
The benefits of Forgiveness is vast, but before we go into its benefits, it is ideal we understand the word “Forgiveness”. Forgiveness is; “an individual, voluntary internal process of letting go of feelings and thoughts of resentment, bitterness, anger, and the need for vengeance and retribution toward someone who we believe has wronged us, including ourselves”. This definition covers almost everything I wanted to talk about today.
Forgiveness is something everyday heroes do, the optimum measure of internal peace. Forgiveness is more of a gift to oneself than to the offender; I realized that holding a grudge is stressful both emotionally and psychologically.
Alexander Pope said, “to err is human, to forgive is divine” well, I never saw it essential to know what that statement meant. Alexander Pope was trying to pass across that it is very Humanlike to make mistakes, but it is ultimately necessary to forgive those mistakes we make. It is essential to let go of the hurt, the pain and most of all, the anger. Forgiveness is telling your offender that they have no power over you, you deserve peace of mind, and you deserve to be free from corrosive anger.
Now that I have told you what forgiveness is, it would only be reasonable to tell you what forgiveness isn’t. Forgiveness does not mean forgetting or condoning and excusing offences. Forgiveness isn’t tolerating someone’s screw up; Although forgiveness has mended some relationship, forgiveness doesn’t force you to reunite with your offender or release them from the clutches of karma or the law. It is not about giving excuses for the offender’s behaviour or pretending it didn’t happen.
Sometimes we get deeply hurt by our spouse, parent, friend or anyone we trust or when we are victims of crime. Once we get hurt and our inner world is badly deranged, it’s almost impossible to focus on anything that goes on around us. Holding unto hurt only shambles us emotionally, and our relationships with people suffer.
Benefits Of Forgiveness
Generally, the benefits of Forgiveness is wide, and this choice doesn’t affect just you; it affects the people around you. Forgiving others, or forgiving yourself, gives you freedom from the past and allows you to reach your full potential. Forgiveness frees you from limitation in all aspects of life and lets you experience the beautiful things in life.
With fewer worries from the past on your shoulder, we gain more self-control over our anger rather than lash out at someone. Forgiveness naturally makes us let go of anger toward ourselves and others. Unfriendly behaviours like being rude, picking a fight or road rage reduces as our commitment to forgiveness increases.
Once we no longer feel anxiety or anger, our heart rate normalizes, and our blood pressure reduces. This allows the body to function as it should. In addition, our stress levels decline because we no longer reprocess thoughts that cause stress to arise.
Forgiveness can substitute depression with a feeling of motivation and empathy; holding onto hurt and anger can weigh you down, so we try to suppress these feelings with substances. Forgiveness helps us deeply love ourselves; we all need to forgive ourselves as well as others. If we don’t forgive ourselves, we become overly critical of ourselves, causing anxiety.
Most importantly, forgiveness mends all relationships; we often use past relationships with people to judge future or present relationships, restricting us. I picked this topic today because I realized that many of us are wounded people creating more wounded people. Because we are holding on to some baggage, we judge other people before truly knowing them. With the benefits of Forgiveness mentioned above, it is safe to say that you’d be so much happier with life when you forgive. So forgive!.
