Holding Grudges Is Bad for Our Health

It might be hard to imagine, but somewhere between 50 and 80 percent of people will experience a trauma at some point in their lives. To make matters worse, most traumas are perpetrated directly by other people -- sometimes even acquaintances, friends, and family members. Given these depressing statistics, it may be tempting to become angry or resentful, to view people as threats and little more. That's what some victims of trauma do, of course. They may hold grudges, harbor life-long resentment, and even seek retribution. Who could blame them? Perhaps this is why some mental health professionals teach that forgiveness is an important step in moving beyond such trauma. It seems obvious that unforgiveness is bad for mental health -- it's highly unpleasant to harbor anger or hurt for prolonged periods of time. But aren't some truly horrible things simply unforgiveable? We posed this question to a man named Aaron Acharya, a refugee from the village of Relukha in South Asia's Kingdom of Bhutan. In 1992, while he was away at college, security forces arrived in his village, and, in the name of maintaining the country's Tibetan Mahayana Buddhist character, evicted the population. To make things legal, the government needed villagers to sign a so-called voluntary migration form. Aaron returned for a holiday and learned of his father's incarceration for refusing to sign. When Aaron demanded they let his father go, officials incarcerated him too. His father finally agreed...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news