Volume 3, Number 16: Can Forgiveness Be Healthy?

The Health Racquet
Volume 3
Number 16

Can Forgiveness Be Healthy?
By Allegra Tschappler

How would forgiveness be an issue of interest? I mean, it’s just what you have to do when your big brother knocks over your tower or when your little 4-year old breaks an antique piece of china. It’s true that forgiving your big brother for being annoying is healthier than retaliating and getting a bloody nose, but are there other healthy advantages to forgiveness than avoiding punishment of a sometimes brutal nature?

The answer is yes. According to Adam Cohen at UC Berkeley, “If we didn't forgive people for any of these hurts, real or imagined, our lives would be filled with anger and spite. We might spend our time plotting and carrying out revenge, and avoiding people that we really ought to be close to. Forgiveness can free us from this kind of life. It allows people to live together and get on with their lives. It must be one of the most important factors in promoting peace between people, and well-being.”

Delving into peace between people and well-being, we see that forgiveness has several benefits, as well as more that haven’t been researched yet:

• Reduces heart disease: "…studies show that letting go of anger and resentment can reduce the severity of heart disease and, in some cases, even prolong the lives of cancer patients."-ABC News, 1/2/1998
  
• Prevents crime: The University of Montgomery conducted a study in 1995 that said that those who were bent on revenge (the opposite of forgiveness) were incredibly likely to commit a crime. It ended up saying that forgiveness education could help reduce crime.
  
• Heals troubled marriages: Dr. Fredrick DiBlasio of the University of Maryland, a family therapist, used forgiveness as his tool to reunite couples when many other tools had been unsuccessful.
  
  According to http://www.forgiving.org/Campaign/harness.asp, not only is this true, but more studies are being conducted as well in Northern Ireland, South Africa, and Rwanda.
  
  http://peacecenter.berkeley.edu/research_forgiveness_cohen.html
  http://www.forgiving.org/Campaign/harness.asp