Why Is It Important To Forgive Someone – What is forgiveness and why is it important? What are the benefits of forgiveness? Why should we forgive someone for something that has hurt us deeply? Does forgiving mean immediately falling back into a trap you just got out of?
Have you ever asked yourself any of these questions? Forgiveness can be a touchy subject, but it’s an important one. It can be uncomfortable to talk about forgiveness because it usually means revisiting things you’d rather leave forgotten, especially if they’re rooted in a traumatic event in your life.
Why Is It Important To Forgive Someone
Forgiving others is one of the secrets to being happy and content in your life that I will cover in my course, Questing for Contentment.
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When looking at the benefits of something, it’s a good idea to start with the definition first. This way we know that we are on the same wavelength. The definition of forgiveness is “to stop holding a grudge against (an offender).”
In simple language, the meaning of forgiveness is that you stop holding resentment towards someone. You can easily see how this has tremendous forgiveness benefits for the forgiving person!
I once heard my former pastor describe it with this story: He was down in the woods chopping down some trees and doing some cleanup work. The chainsaw slipped and instead of cutting the wood, he cut deep into his leg. He managed to get out and ask for help, but until the day of his death, he had a scar on his leg from the accident.
“At that moment he hurt a lot. But now there’s only a scar left and it doesn’t hurt anymore. I still remember it, but it doesn’t hurt.”
Since God Withholds Forgiveness, Can We?
Forgiveness sets us free. He lifts an invisible burden from our shoulders. This is, perhaps, the most powerful benefit of forgiveness. When someone hurts us deeply, our first reaction is often to get even. Bitterness and resentment is one way we try to do this. The problem is that these grievances and bitternesses do not harm the person who has wronged us. They hurt us, slowly poisoning our thoughts, feelings and other relationships.
Much like my former pastor who had a chainsaw accident, things in our lives can definitely leave a mark. His leg wound was healed. He left a scar, but it didn’t cause him any other problems. My friend, when you feel deep pain, forgiveness is what heals that pain.
When we forgive someone, we may think we are doing it for them. By holding on to that pain that you just can’t let go of, you may feel like you’re taking revenge and hurting them back. But the person you forgive may never know that you still think about how they wronged you. The person who hurts the most is you. One of the greatest benefits of forgiveness is the peace it will bring to your heart.
It’s hard to have other good healthy relationships with you, do you hold grudges or walk with bitterness in your heart. These things poison our other relationships. Unforgiving plants a seed of doubt in the minds of our loved ones about, “What if I ever make a mistake so bad they’ll never forgive me?”
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When you forgive others, it helps you to love people better, especially those close to you. This is a huge benefit of forgiveness!
When someone has wronged you, it’s easy to think that they have ruined your life. You may even believe that they have ruined your entire future and you will never be happy with your life. It is very painful to live.
The other problem with this mindset is that it paints you as the innocent victim and puts you in a position where you feel like you can’t do anything about it. This is called victim mentality.
When you forgive someone, you take control of your life. You acknowledge the pain and the effects of what happened, but you also give yourself permission and freedom to move forward. You go from bouncing off the back of a covered wagon to sitting in the driver’s seat and holding the reins. It puts you back in charge of your life.
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As you can imagine, improved mental health is a huge benefit of forgiveness. When we forgive someone, we also let go of self-blame. We no longer allow bitterness and anger to poison our other relationships and that space can be filled with love.
Just as forgiveness improves our mental health, it also releases stress on us. This stress causes physical symptoms in our bodies, none of which are good in the long run. I’ll elaborate on the physical health benefits in a minute, but the more studies that are done on forgiveness, the more we learn about how good it really is for us!
I messed up more times than my fair share. There are times when I get confused. I lose my temper, yell at my kids, mean well, and try to intervene in a situation, but instead of making it better, I make a terrible mess. I hurt feelings when I don’t want to. I need forgiveness from time to time.
It’s no coincidence that websites like Berkley, Mayo Clinic, Harvard Health, Healthline, Mind Body Green, and John Hopkins Medicine all have articles on forgiveness. From a scientific point of view, some health benefits of forgiveness are:
Why Is Practicing Forgiveness Good For Your Health?
There is an undeniable connection between our brain and our body. Science has not fully revealed all of its mysteries. We know that there is a connection between certain brain chemicals and our emotions. A lot has to do with our reactions to stress.
There have been a few scientific studies since the 1980s that try to understand exactly how forgiveness heals and explore some of the benefits of forgiveness. It is even mentioned in “The Handbook for Positive Psychology” published in 2002 by Oxford Press. I still haven’t figured out how forgiveness heals scientifically.
But if you’ve ever struggled to forgive a deep pain and then succeeded, you’ve felt a weight lifted from your heart. Sometimes the “how” isn’t as important as knowing and feeling that you have.
Forgiveness is learning from your mistakes but letting go of the guilt that is holding you back. This is a huge benefit of forgiveness! However, true forgiveness does not mean that there will be reconciliation and reconciliation with anyone who has hurt you.
How To Write A Forgiveness Letter (with An Example)
True forgiveness is facing the consequences of what happened to you, learning the lesson, and moving on. Release hidden anger and bitterness so you don’t poison your good relationships.
True forgiveness is a scar from something that once hurt, but no longer hurts you. You gave up and moved on, but you kept the lesson.
The first step to forgiveness is mostly a decision. Then comes the hard part: sorting out the feelings. Be patient with yourself on this part. Your heart will need time to heal. If the steps explained below aren’t enough, I’ve listed some additional resources on the benefits of forgiving and the steps to do so at the bottom of this post. Forgiveness is hard, but the benefits of forgiveness are worth it!
This is for me the easiest step of the whole process because it is mental. You decide that you will forgive someone who has wronged you. This doesn’t mean you have to reconcile with the other person. It means that you decide not to have hatred and bitterness in your heart.
How To Forgive Yourself: 4 Strategies
Or that person you need to forgive could be yourself. If so, then yes, you have to live with yourself and come to terms with yourself. Don’t skip it if that’s you. We are often very hard on ourselves through our inner critics.
I know, this passage is difficult and often arouses strong emotions. Pain, anger, resentment, bitterness, helplessness, and any number of other emotions. You just grabbed the bandit by an old wound. All that pain, grief, anger, resentment and bitterness – that’s what needs to be healed.
Too often we make the mistake of trying not to feel anything or trying to push away negative emotions. We simply sweep them under a figurative carpet and hope they go away. This might work for a while, but at some point someone will unknowingly lift that rug or drop it and everyone will be flooded.
It’s okay to feel sad, angry, etc. As my mother told me “Feelings are fine. Some stocks aren’t.’ Identify them and collect them, because in the next step we’ll transfer them all to someone who can handle them better than us.
What Forgiveness Is And Isn’t — Hope+wellness
This is a step you won’t find in any scientific mental health guide to forgiveness, but I believe it is a critical step. God forgives his children for their sins, so we must forgive others. He is the Great
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