What is forgiveness and how to apply it

  • Dec 28, 2021
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What is forgiveness and how to apply it

Forgiveness is a complex but very important personal process for people who have been injured or have hurt their peers to regain the inner peace they have lost in the face of what happened. This is not a simple process.

The meaning of forgiving and asking to forgive are true feats worthy of the bravest knights. If you want to know how to work on forgiveness in the couple or how to practice forgiveness in the family, we recommend you read this article in Online Psychology, where we will explain what is forgiveness and how to apply it in order to carry out this difficult but comforting process of personal development.

You may also like: What to do when someone denies you their forgiveness?

Index

  1. What is forgiveness in psychology
  2. The importance of forgiveness
  3. How to work forgiveness

What is forgiveness in psychology.

To know the meaning of forgiving, you must know that forgiveness is an attitude through which a person who has been hurt decides turn the page, accepting what happened with mercy and

without rancor. It is a behavior whose scope will depend on the level of spiritual maturation of the person.

In most cases, to achieve the behavior of forgiveness, it is necessary to go through a complex process of personal maturation. Along this path, the offended person moves away from the anger and resentment experienced at the beginning of the painful experience, to integrate a feeling of acceptance and deep understanding of the situation that led the other person to carry out such behavior of aggression.

One of the reflections of forgiveness is that a very great heart opening, which implies the fact of forgiving the person who has offended us consequently entails an important advance in the process of personal development and maturation.

So what is the value of forgiveness? It turns out that the internal process that took place gives rise to the skill development very important such as empathy, emotional intelligence, compassion, altruism, etc., skills of people with high levels of personal maturity, which makes forgiveness one of the most valuable tools for growth personal.

The importance of forgiveness.

The importance of forgiveness lies, mainly, in two fundamental facts that, inevitably, interact with each other to enhance or reduce each of them, with totally opposite consequences each:

  1. The grudge accumulated, it becomes, over time, destructive to the person himself, affecting his physical or psychological health. If you want to work on this aspect of your life, check our post How to stop being so spiteful.
  2. The forgiveness it opens the heart allowing to embrace feelings of great human value such as compassion, mercy, acceptance and care for the other.

If the person accumulates resentment and is not able to forgive, he closes his heart more and more, which will have repercussions negatively in his future attitude towards life, in his relationships and, finally, in his levels of well-being Y personal health.

If, on the contrary, the person chooses to make an effort to forgive the person who offended him, he performs a very great feat of courage of rejection and abandonment of accumulated resentment and it is, precisely, this fact that will lead to a very great opening your heart accompanied by an enormous calm and inner calm.

What is forgiveness and how to apply it - The importance of forgiveness

How to work forgiveness.

How is forgiveness applied in life? This action supposes, as we have mentioned previously, a complex process of inner maturation during which the offended person will go through different phases ranging from obfuscation fueled by resentment to great mercy granted by the feeling of forgiveness:

  • Refuse to forgive, initial phase caused by the imprint of pain caused by the damage suffered that makes us fall into the attitude of anger and anger.
  • Feeding of rancor, as the only possible way known to justify the anger we feel at the pain they have caused us.
  • Inner pain, and sometimes external in the form of physical or emotional discomfort, produced by accumulated resentment.
  • Search for solutions alternatives to anger and resentment as a means of calming the pain felt by the soul.
  • Recognition rational forgiveness as the only way to regain inner peace.
  • Compassion towards the offender and deep regret for the rancor inflicted on him.
  • Calm and calm infinite by forgiving internally, and in person in the event that it is so decided, the person who has caused us harm. In this sense of fullness lies the importance of the value of forgiveness.

In the same way, it is extremely important to regain inner peace to ask for forgiveness when we have hurt someone. Also in this case it is a process with different phases through which the offending person, after issuing the harmful act, chooses accept the fact to take responsibility for his act and bravely ask for forgiveness.

How to forgive someone who has hurt you a lot

As with the injured person, the one who offends does so because he himself is damaged and either discharges a grudge against another or is insensitive to him with any hurtful act. For this reason, also the people who offend will feel great peace and inner calm when asking for forgiveness.

With this, the people who have done harm, will recognize the error of spreading their own wound on others. Not sure how to forgive someone? If you need help to finish forgiving that person and feel better, we recommend you consult our article on How to learn to forgive: tips.

In conclusion, if you wonder what the meaning of forgiveness is, forgiving and asking for forgiveness constitutes an important step in the purification process internally accepted personal evil that, consciously or unconsciously, hurts oneself and those around us.

Both asking for forgiveness and receiving an apology and accepting them, involve very important processes for the consolidation of mature and balanced personalities, so educate on the importance of this process will allow to build healthier societies, fair and cordial.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to What is forgiveness and how to apply it, we recommend that you enter our category of Personal growth and self-help.

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