The Importance of Forgiveness

We’ve all heard the phrase, “forgive and forget.” As it turns out, this philosophy may actually be beneficial to your health.

Forgiving those who have wronged you can lower your blood pressure, increase your immunity, and decrease the amount of stress hormones in your blood. Studies even suggest that stomach problems, back pain, and headaches may disappear as a result of forgiveness.

Charlotte VanOyen Witvliet, PhD, associate professor of psychology at Hope College, conducted a study in 2001 that monitored the psychological responses of 71 college students as they either dwelled on injustices done to them, or imagined themselves forgiving the offenders.

“When focused on unforgiving responses, their blood pressure surged, their heart rates increased, brow muscles tensed, and negative feelings escalated,” she says. “By contrast, forgiving responses induced calmer feelings and physical responses. It appears that harboring unforgiveness comes at an emotional and a physiological cost. Cultivating forgiveness may cut these costs.”

A study from Erasmus University Rotterdam School of Management in the Netherlands had 46 students participate in two experiments. The first group of students were instructed to write about a time they were offended by another person but forgave them. The other half were told to write about a time they did not forgive a person and continued to view them in a negative light.

After each exercise, the students were shown a hill and told to estimate its slant. Those that had written about forgiving someone perceived the hill to be less steep than those who were still focused on their negative feelings.

Though there is clearly a connection between forgiveness and your health, more research will need to be done to determine exactly why this is. However it may have something to do with power. The authors of the aforementioned study write, “Victims who are unable to reconcile with their offenders often feel a sense of powerlessness. Forgiving, on the other hand, provides a person with a greater sense of self-worth and power, which is often manifested into enhanced physical ability. Another possibility is that holding a grudge can increase rumination, which may decrease the availability of cognitive resources such as glucose that can otherwise be used to cope with physical challenges such as jumping or climbing a hill.”

In conclusion, holding grudges does not solve anything and can actually be harmful to your health, therefore it is important to try to understand the perspective of those that you think have wronged you and ultimately forgive them.

“A state of unforgiveness is like carrying a heavy burden — a burden that victims bring with them when they navigate the physical world,” the authors write. “Forgiveness can lighten this burden.”