Forgiveness is good for your health

Two of the most important healing actions are forgiveness and gratitude. Practicing forgiveness and showing gratitude can powerfully influence our health and wellbeing.

Forgiveness means to pardon or excuse, on reasonable terms, one’s behaviour or action. It means accepting your responsibility for your role in shaping your own life’s experiences. You cannot practice forgiveness unless you start with yourself. You must acknowledge that you are doing the best you can under the given circumstances. You must accept that you are a creative power in the universe. You must forgive yourself when you make mistakes.

Disturbed human behaviour is a result, in part, because people will not accept themselves as fallible and incessantly error prone humans. Realize that you can only do the best you can, nothing more. Given all circumstances of your life, the present situation and your current level of fitness, you are doing what you can do.

In order to grow, learn, expand your horizons and find greater fulfillment in life, you must be willing to change, to take risks and try something new. By taking risks and changing your behaviour, you have a wonderful opportunity to practice forgiveness.

You should also forgive other people, other things and other circumstances. We as humans are fallible. Who among us has not made a mistake. Yes, some people make bad decisions, make mistakes and commit heinous crimes. They should face the music and be punished for their sins. But the burden of holding and retaining our negative emotions towards their actions affects your health and well-being. Forgiveness does not absolve culpability or responsibility for another person’s action, but it allows you to free yourself from the bondage of the past, move forward and focus on your future.

Anger, bitterness, depression, disappointment, discouragement, frustration, fear, guilt, hatred, hurt, loneliness, overwhelm, sadness and other negative emotions are important. They allow us to react to different circumstances in our life. They can be action calls to change our behaviour, change circumstances or change the way we think. However, if we continue to let these emotions rule our life, then it hampers our ability to be mindful and enjoy the present moment to its fullest potential.

To hold on to these negative emotions for long periods of time is unhealthy and can have a negative impact on your health and wellness. It can prevent us from being happy, having inner peace and cultivating unconditional love. It prevents us from making real changes that allow us to achieve our ultimate goals. You should practice forgiveness on others to free yourself from the bondage of negative emotions. If you want to be truly healthy, then you must practice forgiveness on yourself and others around you.

Letting go means what it says. It means letting go of our expectations, desires, things, ideas, thoughts, views, opinions and events. It means to stop clinging to anything and letting things unfold as they happen. It also means to let go of the past, live in the present moment and stop trying to manipulate the future.

It means stop bearing grudges about past wrongs and violations. It means to stop resisting, struggling and fighting change and stop trying to change things except yourself. It means accepting things as they unfold.

It means practicing unconditional love. Letting go frees you from the bondage of desires and expectations.

You cannot fully appreciate the present moment and cultivate mindfulness, unless you practice letting go. You will free yourself of the limitations of your negative emotions. Hate, fear, anger, hurt, disappointment and guilt will melt away. You may feel immediately better after letting go.

Gratitude means expressing thankfulness and showing appreciation. It means to be truly grateful about one’s life, circumstances, behaviour and action. It means letting go of your attachment to negative emotions of hate, jealousy and envy. To be grateful is to show heartfelt appreciation of the simple things in life on a daily basis.

Some statistics are sobering. About 9 percent of the human population or over 700 million people live on less than $2 per day. One in five children in the world suffer from extreme poverty. Just under 800 million people in the world can’t read or write. Close to 300 million young children have never attended school. One quarter of the world’s population does not have access to basic hygiene services like fresh water. More than three billion people do not have access to basic medical care. One in 27 children will die before the age of five from an otherwise preventable disease or malnutrition.

We should show thankfulness for our lives, our health and the incredible beauty that this world is. Practicing gratitude means to take time from our busy, frivolous lives to pay close attention to the small details that make life possible.

The information provided in this article does not, and is not intended to, constitute medical advice. All information and content are for general information purposes only.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.