What’s the effect of having a heart of forgiveness?

Forgiveness is necessary to protect mental and physical health. This is because being obsessed with wrong behavior, whether it is oneself or others, can affect cardiovascular, brain and immune health and lead to chronic health problems.

Different people have different ways of reaching true forgiveness, but they are largely divided into determined and emotional forgiveness. This can be compared to forgiving by head and forgiving by heart. “You may experience a change of emotion and then decide to forgive, or you may experience a change of emotion in the future,” said Everett Waddington Jr., emeritus professor at Commonwealth University in Virginia.

Forgiveness is a very difficult task. However, human relationships play an important role in health, so forgiveness and notification are both beneficial to me and my opponents.

“Mental health is directly related to physical health,” says Professor Wardington. The U.S. medical media “Everyday Health” dotcom has summarized three reasons why forgiveness is good for your health.

1. Can manage stress

Unforgivable encourages anger, hostility, stress and affects mental and physical health. According to a study published in the 2016 Annual Report of Behavioral Medicine, forgivable people regardless of age experienced stress reduction. This soon led to a reduction in mental distress. “Forgiveness is not the only strategy that can cope with adversity, but it is one of the more effective ways to respond to reducing stress and improving health,” the research team explained.

Conversely, cortisol, a stress hormone in particular, has a negative effect on the system throughout the body. Professor Wardington explains that chronically high cortisol can reduce parts of the brain, including hippocampus, which plays a role in turning experience into memory. This means that the link between stress and cortisol can potentially affect memory. Cortisol also damages other areas. It can affect the immune system at the cellular level and cause extensive damage. “We can disrupt everything from reproductive systems to our ability to fight disease and fatigue,” Waddington said.

2. Activates parasympathetic nervous system and helps the heart.

Forgiveness can also affect the parasympathetic nervous system, slowing breathing and heart rate and increasing digestion. “The parasympathetic nervous system is a calm part of the nervous system, so it relieves irritation in certain areas,” Professor Wardington said. Forgiveness activates the parasympathetic nervous system, and the parasympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system can help the mind and body through balance.

This also affects cardiovascular function. According to a meta-analysis published in the American Journal of Cardiology, anger and hostility are not only worse for people with heart disease, but also linked to an increased risk of heart disease.

3. Less ruminants can reduce the risk of mental problems.

The act of not forgiving or refusing to forgive someone almost always means repeating and reflecting on something in your mind. According to Professor Waddington, we all reflect, but the way we reflect on ourselves varies from individual to individual. One is angry and the other is hopelessly reminded. Some people reflect on their feelings of depression or anxiety. When these ruminants become habitual, they can cause mental problems.

“Such reflection is generally bad for mental health,” Professor Wardington said. Invasive and repetitive thinking can cause anger disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, and so on. Anxiety can also cause physical diseases such as abdominal pain and migraine. “After forgiveness, I still reflect on myself, but I can shake off a lot of bitterness and anger,” he added. It explains that even if forgiveness does not completely eliminate ruminants, it reduces the toxicity derived from ruminants.