Forgiveness is a Pathway to Healing

Sages, mystics, and mental health experts agree that forgiveness benefits your well-being. An inability to forgive burdens your psyche. It erodes your emotional and mental health, and eventually takes a toll on your physical body, since stress is a well-known contributor to sickness and pain. Forgiveness enables healing, growth, and new beginnings, even if it isn’t always easy.

Forgiveness involves releasing grievances, forgiving yourself, and seeking forgiveness from others. It may also be as simple as coming to terms with what happened. That of course takes time. The challenge may even extend to forgiving yourself for not being able to forgive.

Forgiveness is something you do for you. It helps you to change your response to circumstances beyond your control. And when you embrace forgiveness, it reduces the emotional and physical pain that comes from carrying a grudge.