Forgiving others to help improve your health

cheryl

cheryl

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Forgiving others to help improve your health - Stanford

Holding a grudge is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die, my partner often says. In some ways this isn't far from the truth. As a Stanford Magazine story explains, letting go of past hurts and vengeful feelings caused by others (or even yourself) can benefit your mental and physical health.

Fred Luskin, PhD, has been studying forgiveness and how it affects human health for decades. As he explains in the story by Charity Ferreira, when a past hurt is unresolved, thinking of it triggers stress chemicals that cause physical distress.

"When you remember it often, you are stressing your body on a chronic basis," Luskin says. "That has a physical cost," that multiplies the more you ruminate on it.
 
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