Research shows that practising forgiveness has substantial mental and physical health benefits. These include lower risk of heart attack, improved cholesterol and sleep, and reduced anxiety, depression, stress, pain and blood pressure.
When we don’t forgive others, we find ourselves in a state of anger and resentment, which triggers the stress response and ultimately results in negative health impacts. Anger triggers the “fight or flight” state, switching on the stress response, causing the heart rate and blood pressure to rise and the body to prioritise systems only related to immediate survival. The mind races so that you can make quick decisions and focus on a perceived threat, all of which is useful from an evolutionary perspective when there is an actual tiger running towards you. But when the tiger is another person we are obsessively focusing on, or perceiving as a “threat”, that anger is ultimately going to drain our “prana” or life force. Movements of the mind are just energy, and hatred is like a vacuum that will suck the life out of you, leaving you exhausted. Suppressing the immune system in this way in moments of crisis is necessary for the short term. However, when we are triggering this stress response long term because of our inability to let go of feelings like anger and resentment, our health will eventually suffer. Not forgiving others isn’t punishing them; it’s making you sick.
Aversion as an obstacle to peace
Patanjali tells that aversion () is one of the five main afflictions (), or obstacles to yoga. If you want more peace in your life, you will have to work with aversions. They are one of the root causes of your unhappiness. When you experience aversion, you try to create distance and separation from that person or thing you feel repelled by. The goal of yoga is the opposite to this: it’s non-separation, to reunite, bring together and yoke.
