The Power of Forgiveness: How Letting Go of Negative Emotions Can Improve Your Health

We all experience negative emotions from time to time, but these feelings can have a much greater impact on your health than you might think. Every time you dwell on regrets, hold onto resentment, or replay painful memories, your body suffers just as much as your mind. This is why harboring negative emotions can contribute to long-term diseases. However, there’s one simple solution: forgiveness. The problem, though, is that our culture often associates forgiveness with weakness or submission, making it difficult for many to fully embrace it and forgive those who have hurt them.

Clearing Negative Energy: The Value of Forgiveness

The Greater Good Science Center defines forgiveness as “a conscious, deliberate decision to release feelings of resentment or vengeance toward someone who has wronged you, regardless of whether they deserve your forgiveness.” It’s crucial to understand that forgiveness is a process, not a one-time event. This is why there’s a distinction between decisional forgiveness and emotional forgiveness.

Some researchers explain the difference as follows: “Decisional forgiveness involves the behavioral intention to let go of an unforgiving attitude and respond differently to someone who has wronged you. Emotional forgiveness, however, involves replacing negative emotions with positive, other-oriented feelings. Emotional forgiveness results in psychophysiological changes and has more direct effects on health and well-being.”

Studies have found that a forgiving attitude is linked to better psychological well-being and subjective happiness. Additionally, forgiveness is connected to improved physical symptoms, fewer medications, better sleep quality, less fatigue, and fewer physical complaints.

Furthermore, forgiveness is beneficial for heart health. A study in the American Journal of Cardiology showed that anger and negative emotions have cardiotoxic effects, while forgiveness appears to have a cardioprotective effect. The researchers concluded, “These findings suggest that interventions aimed at reducing anger and promoting forgiveness could be clinically relevant.”

Forgiveness and Health: How It Improves Your Life

Researchers from Hope College examined 35 female and 36 male participants to study the effects of revisiting painful memories and grudges. They observed factors such as blood pressure, heart rate, facial muscle tension, and sweat gland activity.

Participants were then asked to imagine forgiving those who had hurt them. The results showed that "forgiving thoughts led to greater perceived control and lower physiological stress responses." Simply put, negative emotions raised stress and sweat production, while forgiveness reduced blood pressure and relaxed facial muscles.

The study further emphasized that “chronic unforgiving responses may erode health, while forgiving responses may enhance it.”

Forgiveness and Cancer: A Surprising Connection

Unforgiveness has even been classified as a disease by Dr. Steven Standiford, chief of surgery at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America. He argues that holding onto anger and refusing to forgive can negatively impact a person’s health and even hinder their response to treatment.

Dr. Standiford states, "It’s important to address emotional wounds, as they can impact how a person reacts to treatments, and even their willingness to pursue them."

Regarding cancer, forgiveness may also play a role in prevention. Dr. Michael Barry, author of The Forgiveness Project, suggests that 61% of cancer patients struggle with forgiveness. He explains, “Holding onto negative emotions like anger and hatred creates chronic anxiety, which triggers the release of excess adrenaline and cortisol. This depletes the production of natural killer cells, your body’s primary defense against cancer.”

Putting Forgiveness Into Practice

Forgiveness doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be as simple as releasing hurtful memories and recognizing that those who have hurt you are human too. However, before you can forgive others, it’s crucial to forgive yourself for holding onto resentment for so long. Letting go of the past can make you feel healthier and lighter than ever before.