Forgiveness can be a challenge for several reasons. Hari Raya Aidilfitri just around the corner! Instead, make Syawal a special day with no obstacles and challenges for you to forgive each other.

It’s good to be sorry. Why?

Forgiveness is one of the main characteristics of a righteous person. There many benefits of forgiveness between person who apologize and forgive.

It’s funny that one of the hardest things to do is also one of the most beneficial things we can do for our lives. I guess that’s why they say that doing hard things makes us stronger and happier in life. The benefits of forgiveness make it a practice that we all should be doing.

Benefits of Forgiveness

1. Build and Strengthen Bondings

Stops war and promotes peace. Forgiveness is one of the keys to peace. When we can’t forgive other people for what they do or say, we keep ourselves in a state of war with them. We battle over how right we are, and, obviously, that affects everything in a very negative way, whether the war is on a big scale or a small scale.

Having little wars with others in your life is a bad thing! The consequences of war are loss: loss of time, energy, happiness, relationships, etc. Therefore, one of the benefits of forgiveness, and experiencing peace instead of war, includes things like gaining time, gaining energy, gaining happiness, and gaining relationships.

Moreover, having wars with yourself is a bad thing. Contemplating what you should have done, what they should have done, and what you can do to make it all better, is just as bad as actually fighting with the other person.

2. Karma Works In Your Favor

We all believe in karma on some level because we have all seen it in action. If you do bad things, bad things come into your life and are done unto you. To me, karma is a way of teaching you who you are and what you want out of life, and a way of showing you how you are currently interacting with life. Sometimes we are not aware of how crazy we are being!

Karma works for both good and bad. When you receive something good, it is likely because of something good you did. However, even good things are a way to assess your life. You learn what you have been doing and what you need to do in the future.

3. Spiritual Growth Happens

Do you want to become stronger in spirit? Do you want to move past your ego and connect to your spirit to feel light and in tune with what is going on around you? Do you want to become more aware and conscious of who you are and what you were meant to do here? If you do, then you better start forgiving! The only way to grow spiritually is to fill your heart with love, and the only way to do that is to let go of all the emotions that are blocking you from love.

There is an emotional scale that determines how you are going to act and go through life. If you are stuck in anger, sadness, or powerlessness (all emotions that come from holding on to anger), then you cannot experience higher emotions such as joy, compassion, or love (all emotions that come from forgiving). Negative emotions keep you stuck in a negative place and keep you under stress where you can’t let go and get into the flow, whereas positive emotions help you feel on top of the world and feel alive.

4. You Get More Time To Create The Life You Want

Not being able to forgive sucks up a lot of time from your life. You need to focus on that person, complain about them, and think about revenge. Often not being able to forgive means stalking, especially now when we can access other people’s lives online. We stalk our exes, old friends, and everyone who has done us wrong. And that takes a lot of time! It takes time to search through their profiles or drive by their house. That’s time that could be spent doing much better things.

When you forgive, you can focus on yourself and your life, not on what other people are doing. You can focus on the people that matter and activities that matter. That helps you make use of the time you have here.

5. You Become More Present In Life

Not only do you have more time to create the life you want, but you are also more present and capable of experiencing life fully, unlike when you are unable to let go. Holding on to anger keeps you stuck at that moment. You relive it and focus on it, even while life is happening around you. As you imagine that trespasses against you, you may be missing out on a warm smile, an exciting opportunity, or a chance to share something with someone you love.

Becoming more present in your life has a whole list of benefits itself, including more creativity, less stress, and less regret. And, of course, it is a way to really experience every moment in your life and not waste a second stuck somewhere that has no benefit for your life at all.

6. You Gain Self-Respect

When you are able to forgive someone, you can look in the mirror and feel pretty amazing about yourself. You see a powerful human who can look past faults and other people’s ugliness, and someone who can stay in control of life and how you act on a day-to-day basis. That gives you a real sense of pride and confidence.

When you can’t forgive, you feel more on the same plane as them. Since you don’t like them or what they did, then you are not going to like yourself very much either if you see yourself as a reflection of them.

7. You Set An Amazing Example

I guess you could say that you gain the respect of others when you practice forgiveness. They see you as the strong, confident, and loving person who they want to be, and you become someone they want in their life or value in their life, which can benefit your relationships in many different ways.

8. You Improve Your Health

The mind-body connection is strong, and that’s why improved health is one of the benefits of forgiveness. According to the Mayo Clinic, forgiveness can benefit your immune system, heart, blood pressure, and helps you fight anxiety, stress, and depression. In other words, your overall health can improve and you can prevent future diseases.

I have to say that, in my personal life, I have seen seniors forgive and have major health improvements. The permanent frown disappeared, the worry disappeared, and the willingness to laugh and treat themselves better appeared

9. You Become Happier

This is one of the most obvious benefits of forgiveness. When all the other benefits happen in your life, you automatically become happier! You can’t help but feel more alive, more on purpose, happier in your relationships, and happier about your future. Life just feels better when you can let go of the past and focus on what is happening now and what you want to happen.

In conclusion, apologize for the brave nature. It’s important that we take care of others’ hearts. That is a responsibility. But we will not escape the error. We need to acknowledge that fact. Do not hold back from apologizing because things are not tomorrow.

Forgive the power of strong people. Forgiveness is the nature of strong people.  Be positive and calm in the face of life. Be honest. Do it because we know forgiveness is a virtue and God loves it. Don’t live in the past, there are things we need to give up to find a better new day.