Forgiveness Can Shift Your Brain and Your Pain

One of the things I teach with people in chronic pain is forgiveness- of others, of past hurts, and most importantly yourself and your symptoms. We have research showing how forgiveness leads to positive health effects. Here is a blurb below from an article at Johns Hopkins Medicine talking about forgiveness. 

“There is an enormous physical burden to being hurt and disappointed,” says Karen Swartz, M.D., director of the Mood Disorders Adult Consultation Clinic at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Chronic anger puts you into a fight-or-flight mode, which results in numerous changes in heart rate, blood pressure and immune response. Those changes, then, increase the risk of depression, heart disease and diabetes, among other conditions. Forgiveness, however, calms stress levels, leading to improved health.

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/forgiveness-your-health-depends-on-it