Grudges: How We Hurt Ourselves
Talk to the Hand (c) 2019 Linda M. Rhinehart Neas Did you know that holding grudges can make you sick? In a New York Times article, Tim Herrera talks about how people keep grudges and how this can cause them serious illness. The opposite of a grudge is forgiveness. Forgiveness is the gift you give yourself. There are very good reasons why I say this. Dr. Frederic Luskin, founder of the Stanford Forgiveness Project said, "Holding onto a grudge really is an ineffective strategy for dealing with a life situation that you haven’t been able to master. That’s the reality of it. Whenever you can’t grieve and assimilate what has happened, you hold it in a certain way. “If it’s bitterness, you hold it with anger. If it’s hopeless, you hold it with despair. But both of those are psycho-physiological responses to an inability to cope, and they both do mental and physical damage. “The hopelessness shuts down and dampens immune response, leads to som...