Forgiveness means giving up the suffering of the past and being willing to forge ahead with far greater potential for inner freedom. Anne Lamott famously declared, “Forgiveness is giving up all hope of having had a different past.” Besides the reward of letting go of a painful past, there are powerful health benefits that go hand-in-hand with the practice of forgiveness. In the physical domain, forgiveness is associated with
lower heart rate and blood pressure as well as overall stress relief . It is also associated with improving physical symptoms , reducing fatigue in some patient populations, and improving sleep quality . In the psychological domain, forgiveness has been shown to diminish the experience of stress and inner conflict while simultaneously restoring positive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
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