The Meaning and Importance of Forgiveness

The Meaning and Importance of Forgiveness

Forgiveness is has various meanings depending on an individual. Everyone has their own sort of criteria in order for them to forgive, or not. In the dictionary, forgiveness is defined as, "To excuse for a fault or an offense; pardon. To renounce anger or resentment against. To absolve from payment of." To me, the meaning of forgiveness is putting trust into someone again, or letting them back into your life and opening your heart to them. By trusting someone again, you must also trust that he/she will not to do what he/she has done to you ever again.

Forgiving is forgetting about the negative past and letting go of what has happened. Additionally, you and that person can move on and begin having a healthy relationship again, whether it is a significant other, a parent, or a friend. Forgiveness can have positive effects on you and others around you. For example, by letting go feelings of resentment or revenge, it can lead to being more focused about the positive things in your life. It is also a possibility that by forgiving the person who has hurt you, could lead to a feeling of understand or even empathy for him/her. It also leads to a lesser chance of substance abuse, lower blood pressure, and a lesser risk of depression.

It also can be a learning experience for some. For example, let's say that you keep forgiving the same person over and over again because he/she is a friend. Let's also say that he/she has hurt you in many ways, but you don't want to lose that person because they are an important part in your life. In my opinion, you need to learn and teach yourself to make it more difficult for that person to be forgiven or not be forgiven or else they could continue to hurt you, if you allow them to. It is also a learning experience for yourself as well. By forgiving, you can learn how to be compassionate and how to look at the situation from the wrongdoer's perspective. Trying to put yourself in their shoes could show you why they chose to do whatever

they did. By doing this, you may realize that they didn't mean to hurt you, and it may lead to an easier transition to forgiveness.

Forgiving someone can be really easy or really difficult, depending on the argument or depth of the relationship between the persons, and whether it is your family members, friends, or partner. In my opinion, I think it is easier to forgive a friend. Since friends are not too emotionally attached, and you could chose not to see them. Whereas with close family members, you have to see them all the time. With a partner, you can get so emotionally attached, that they could easily hurt you by, for example, cheating. That is not something most people take lightly, and it would be very hard to forgive something like that.

Not everyone will be able