Читать книгу The Forgiveness Solution - Philip H. Friedman - Страница 13

Everett Worthington and his colleagues have summarized much of the literature on forgiveness and health.² They pointed out that chronic unforgiving responses can contribute to poor health, especially in the areas of cardiovascular reactivity and blood pressure. In general, those people who were unforgiving have higher blood pressure than those who were forgiving. In addition, researchers have found some preliminary evidence that certain areas of the brain tend to be activated when people are making forgiveness judgments, especially certain areas of the frontal lobes, while other areas of the brain, such as the amygdala and limbic system, tend to be activated when fear, anger, and other distressing feelings are the predominant emotions. Research has also shown that forgiving people engage in more healthy behaviors, have a better physical health status, have better social support, are less likely to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes, have less depression, anxiety, and stress, and fewer interpersonal problems.³

Learning to forgive can also be very beneficial to families dealing with health problems. Studies have shown that people who are forgiving decrease their risk of heart attack and experience less anger and physical pain than their unforgiving counterparts. So one of the many benefits of forgiving is that it may improve your health.