Men can be assholes. Women can be assholes. Kids and dogs can be assholes too, but that shouldn’t prevent anyone from finding happiness.
Alexander Pope wrote, “To err is human, to forgive divine.” And while it might not necessarily be divine to forgive, it can sure as hell make you feel better. How is that possible, you ask? Simple. The less shit you have to deal with on a day to day basis, the better it is for you.
Every day we come into contact with infinite stimuli. It can be overwhelming at best, and intolerable at worst. We’ve all felt the stress that comes with having a full to-do list, and our emotions operate in much the same manner. We overload ourselves to the breaking point, and while much of that is out of our control, not everything is. So make your life just a little easier by scratching one thing off your emotional to-do list. Cross off anger.
It takes a lot of energy and time to be mad at someone. When holding a grudge, we are sacrificing emotional capacity that could be better used making ourselves happy. You can read more about how stress impacts the brain in one of my previous articles, here.
But there’s a simple solution to this problem: forgiveness. Instead of hanging on to all that anger and hate, let it go. Forgive whoever wronged you and move on. This process is more about you than the person you are forgiving. It will lead to a happier and healthier you.
Weekly Pursuit of Happiness
I’ve held onto a lot of anger in my life. Today, I am hanging onto forgiveness.
#WordsThatMatter
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This post is republished on Medium.
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