Forgiveness Essay

Forgiveness has a different context depending on where the person is from or what he believes. Religion places a great emphasis on the view of forgiveness.

Forgiveness is the act of forgiving someone or something. What this means is that forgiveness is a conscious, deliberate decision to release feelings of resentment or vengeance toward a person or group who has harmed you, regardless of whether they actually deserve your forgiveness. A quote from Luminita D. Savic “People should forgive because forgiveness is an act of strength. You don’t forgive because you are weak, but because you are strong enough to realize that only by letting go of resentments you will be happy and at peace. Also forgiveness is a gift you give to yourself, to be at peace, to be happy and to be able to sleep at night.

Inversely, according to Ingersoll-Dayton, & Ha (2009), forgiveness regarded replacing negative behaviors and thinking towards the offender in hopes of rendering inner

Forgiveness is not just practiced by saints and not only benefits its recipients but have strong connection with person’s physical, mental and spiritual health. It plays a great role in the health of families, communities and nations. Forgiveness provides common ground for love, acceptance, harmony and true happiness Most spiritual and religious leaders of the world will agree that forgiveness of oneself and others is one way to clear the mind, heart and soul and may result in a feeling of increased peace and happiness.

What is forgiveness? What is the purpose of forgiving? What is required to do so?

Life has ups and downs, it may stab you in the back, but it’s a choice to forgive and forget about it. Forgiveness is something that helps people move on. For every person, the word forgiveness has a different meaning, for me it means leaving behind actions from my past. Personally, I like to think that forgiveness is a way to start over whether in a friendship or in life. If the opportunity presented itself to me to explain the word, forgiveness, to someone I would simply reply that it is the idea of setting yourself free from all the hate one has been holding.

The bible teaches Christians to forgive in order to receive forgiveness. People often retaliate for wrongs suffered by not forgiving. However, researchers are discovering that not forgiveness can lead to health problems.

Forgiveness has been defined in many ways by psychologists and researchers with no one universal definition. Hill (as cited in Maltby, Day and Mackaskill 2001) state that it is widely agreed that forgiveness involves a willingness to abandon resentment, negative judgement and indifferent behaviour towards the person who has hurt them Although research is recent, from the last 15 years, it has helped develop our understanding of forgiveness . Research has shown that forgiveness gives positive mental health and prevents the development of mental disorders such as anxiety, depression and stress. Two major models of forgiveness are Enright’s model and Worthington’s (2001) pyramid model to REACH forgiveness. Both these models involve steps and

The article "Self-forgiveness: The forgotten stepchild of forgiveness research" is a qualitative rather than a quantitative study of the phenomenon of self-forgiveness. The authors distinguish self-forgiveness versus forgiveness of an 'other' in an outwardly-directed fashion. They state that self-forgiveness has been under-studied in the existing literature. The beginning of the article is devoted to a literature review of existing writings upon the subject, with using a working definition of self forgiveness "as a set of motivational changes whereby one becomes decreasingly motivated to avoid stimuli associated with the offense, decreasingly motivated to retaliate against the self 地nd increasingly motivated to act benevolently toward the self" (Hall & Fincham 2005: 622).

Forgiveness: the action or process of forgiving or being forgiven. To forgive means to stop being angry, stop blaming, or feeling resentful towards someone for either an offense, flaw or mistake. There is a difference between forgiving someone

“One must first uncover one’s anger. In doing so, one can work through such issues as identifying psychological defenses (like denial), confronting the anger, or sometimes acknowledging the experience of shame…Once one has committed to forgive, one can begin the work of forgiveness by viewing the offender in new ways by developing empathy and compassion toward the offender…After one has work on forgiveness, one might find new meaning in the suffering, recognize that one has been an offender in the past, and realize that one is not alone

The general topic of forgiveness has received a magnitude of attention and research on a conceptual level in recent years. Hall and Fincham consistently noted, however, that self-forgiveness had little to no empirical study or research documented and believe this is a critical piece to an individual’s overall emotional health. In an effort to stimulate additional research on the

Pastor Johann Arnold states that: When we forgive someone for a mistake or a deliberate hurt, we still recognize it as such, but instead of lashing out or biting back, we attempt to see beyond it, so as to restore our relationship with the person responsible for it. Our forgiveness may not take away our pain- -– it may not even be acknowledged or accepted -– yet the act of offering it will keep us from being sucked into the downward spiral of resentment. Forgiveness of one's self by the guilty party allows the guilty party to accept what they have done, deal with it, heal and move on with their partner. Forgiveness does not excuse or minimize the behaviour, forgiveness allows each person to be released from the past and to start living in the present once again. Forgiving is "a point where we are less in touch with the pain of the betrayal and more in touch with the acceptance of the person and the action" (Cordova, 2006, p.

Forgiveness should be a gift which you give yourself. When you feel that forgiveness is necessary, do not forgive for “their” sake.

From a mental health perspective, in order to be able to forgive others one must have self-forgiveness. When a person feels like they have been “forgiven by God predicted a greater tendency to forgive others unconditionally” (Bassett,Carrier,Charleson,Pak,Schwingel et.al, 2016 para. 13). Forgiveness is now being researched and explored in many different fields of study such including mental health, politics, criminal justice and even business classes and forgiveness will continue to be topic of new studies because of the ways that it can affect one’s life. Looking at forgiveness from a psychological standpoint and being able to give forgiveness can at times be difficult on a person’s mental health, yet most if not all of the studies relate back to a biblical worldview.