There are many benefits of being able to leave the past behind, all of which are considerably greater than what you’d gain from holding hard feelings against someone.
It’s Easier
Blaming someone constantly for past issues is actually a lot harder than leaving them behind you. Every time you see the person, you will have to force yourself to relive past memories and look at them the same way you did in that memory. Ever single time.
This can mean ignoring them, insulting them and looking down upon them every time you encounter them. For the better part of us, this is not an easy task.
By not holding it against them, you allow yourself to express yourself how you normally would and not restrict yourself to only showing a certain amount of emotions to them at any time.
It’s Good For Your Health
Think of your body as a box. Every time you feel resentful and refuse to relieve yourself of these emotions, an item is placed inside of the box. The bigger the emotion you’re feeling, the bigger the item that would be used.
Sooner or later, you’re going to run out of room, and what will happen? The box will burst.
The same applies to your body. Every time you are able to forgive someone for the emotions that they put you through, the item is taken away, and weight is lifted off of your shoulders.
Confirmed by past studies, forgiving people can have a positive effect on your mental and physical health. People who are able to forgive generally have a better cardiovascular health and decreased levels of stress.
You Learn Empathy
It’s unlikely that you’ll often agree with the what the other person did to you, but that is not always important. By being able to understand what the person did and why they did it will do you good, as empathy is a skill required in almost any debate or advice giving subject.
If you are able to look at the person, know that they did wrong but still understand why they did it anyway, you’re one step closer to learning empathy.
We can’t always think the best out of every situation, and we certainly can’t always think that they did it with the best intentions in mind, but by being able to accept them and forgive them anyway, you’re bettering yourself as a person.
Big Becomes Small, Small disappears
Forgiveness is a skill that progressively gets easier and easier every time you perform it. If you were to forgive someone for something that you’d previously considered incredibly important, the next time someone does something similar to you, it’ll be easier to do so sooner.
Your biggest troubles will soon seem smaller, and your smaller issues will soon be too minor to think about.
Psst… Your Enemies Will Hate It
The people that seem to harass you the most do it for one reason: To spike a reaction out of you. By giving them the satisfaction of being emotional, you have effectively just given the bullying individual exactly what they came for, and they will love having you as a victim for that.
As soon as you break this bond, it’s quite possibly that the harassing individual will simply stop hurting you, seeing that their words/actions aren’t helping their ego.
When you consider the true power of forgiveness, you can see why it is an amazing attribute to have. While it is perfectly simple to hold everything inside of yourself, it’s even easier to free yourself this negativity and extinguish the hate that lives inside of you, all by forgiving someone.
Not only will you notice the difference, but so will other people, and it can make you a better person to be acquainted with.
