Let It Go

Forgiveness Is Key to Good Health

By Laurie L. Dove

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How can the journey begin? There are many paths to forgiveness. Try them all; find one that works for you. Journaling or writing can help you express internal anger or fear and provides a cathartic release. The added benefit is that writing down your innermost uncensored feelings provides you with objectivity. What you've really written may surprise you.

Try meditation, yoga or tai chi. While your meditative task is to clear your mind, not to go through a mental checklist of grudge-holding, unwinding may help you to later look at the situation objectively. Go for a walk in the woods, paddle down a river, run through the park the exercise will help combat the effects of bad stress and give you a sounding board for your own mental turmoil.

Once you've reached forgiveness, don't stop the good behaviors you have started, Dr. Degnan says. If you started walking each day to think about forgiveness, keep it up. Don't risk a return to old emotional and physical habits. "Contemplative exercise is a wonderful practice to continue anyway," Dr. Degnan says. "There are so many stressors the body accumulates; having exercise as a regular part of your life will significantly reduce long-term complications."

After his mother was murdered in 1995, Everett Worthing was confronted with his own capacity to forgive the youth who caused her death. Worthing, a college professor in Richmond, Va., subsequently conducted more than 25 studies about forgiveness and authored Five Steps to Forgiveness: The Art and Science of Forgiving

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Let It Go

Forgiveness Is Key to Good Health

By Laurie L. Dove

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