Forgiving others can be healing and bring us closer together. Here you can find out why forgiving makes you happy and is good for your health and relationships as well as is playing online casino promotions.
If someone else does something hurtful to us, whether it’s just an insult or something worse like a fling, we often have the following reactions: We avoid the other person or wish to retaliate or make amends. However, relationships can break down because we no longer let the other person get close to us. Or a vicious circle of retaliation develops. Because often the other person perceives our supposed compensation as more serious than his or her actual deed. Thus, the other person, in turn, will again wish for compensation. If someone doesn’t get out of this situation, this cycle can go on forever and destroy good friendships and relationships.
But there is another way: Forgiveness is a way to break the cycle of retaliation and maintain relationships. We can never undo what has happened – but what we have in our hands is our reaction to such an action that has hurt us.
WHAT IS FORGIVENESS
Forgiveness brings us closer to others. Forgiveness, according to the word, means: Renouncing retaliation or reparation. When we forgive, we do not demand what is rightfully ours. We relinquish, renounce, cease to “forgive,” that is, to name, to make known. With forgiveness we end the eternal pointing at the wound, the accusing of the other. We forgive the other his guilt – beyond just compensation.
In psychological research, forgiveness is also described in this way: instead of retaliation, a hurtful behavior of the other person is followed by a positive reaction. That is, you reach out to the other person instead of avoiding them and do not harbor anger, resentment, or thoughts of revenge against them, but rather loving and accepting feelings. For a long time, little research focused on forgiveness. It wasn’t until the 20th century that social scientists began to look at the subject and were able to empirically prove the positive effects of forgiveness that had already been suspected.
This is what happens to you when you forgive others. Forgiveness means letting go – and that makes you happy. People who are good at forgiving experience more positive and fewer negative feelings in their everyday lives. If you can forgive others, you will:
- be happy about more things in your everyday life
- look to the future with hope
- Be happier
- suffer less from depressive moods
- have less anxiety
- and brood less.
Researchers suspect that this is partly because people who forgive can let go more easily and thus carry less ballast around with them and can concentrate on the positive things.
But researchers have found positive effects not only on the emotional level. Forgiveness was shown to be beneficial for physical health – people who can forgive others show fewer cardiovascular problems than people who find it difficult to forgive and let go. However, this correlation is not exclusively due to forgiveness, but also to other factors.
This is why forgiveness is good for your relationships:
Forgiveness gives the other person a chance to reflect and come to an honest understanding. There are many situations in which you can forgive: Your partner after a fling, a friend who started a rumor, or even your parents after years of conflict.
When you forgive, you give the other person the chance to think honestly and impartially about his or her actions, without getting caught up in defensive reflexes. The other person does not have to justify himself or try to make amends. He can reflect and draw his own conclusions without fear of consequences. This often has a lasting effect on the other person and is more likely to lead to an admission. It becomes much more likely that the other person will actually learn something from his or her actions than if we insist on making amends or avoid the other person from now on.
