Forgiveness Boosts Health
Forgiveness is not only a virtue, it’s a health-booster, too.
Anger, bitterness and resentment are natural human emotions. But holding a grudge against your sister for not having arthritis or hanging onto jealousy over a coworker for snagging your well-deserved promotion may negatively impact your health – including your arthritis.
Forgiveness – giving up resentment or anger toward another – can greatly reduce your body’s anger and stress responses, which adversely affect your mental and physical health. Research conducted by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, Ann Arbor, reported that people who forgive themselves and others experience reduced feelings of restlessness, nervousness and hopelessness. Other research, including a University of Tennessee-Knoxville study, has found forgiveness can also lower blood pressure and heart rates.
“Stress exacerbates pain, tightens muscles and interferes with the smooth running of the immune system – all things that have an effect on arthritis,” says Fred Luskin, PhD, director of the Forgiveness Project at Stanford University, Stanford, Calif. “People think they have this unlimited storage of anger, judgment and hostility that will never come home to roost, but it comes home immediately.”
And good news: You don’t have to be Gandhi to forgive others or ask for forgiveness. “Forgiveness is a teachable skill; you can learn it just like you learn to play the piano,” says Luskin. Remember these tips when learning to forgive:
Commit yourself. Do whatever you have to do to feel better. Forgiveness is for you, not for anyone else.
Get perspective. Recognize that your primary distress comes from the hurt feelings and physical upset you suffer now, not what offended or hurt you two minutes or 10 years ago.
Meet positive goals. Instead of mentally replaying your hurt, seek a new and positive future.
Live well. Remember that a life well lived is your best revenge. Stop focusing on wounded feelings – that gives the person who caused your pain power over you. Instead, look for love, beauty and kindness around you.
ATND07
