Inner Peace, Forgiveness and Health
Listen to the audio version. It’s no secret that our modern life is stressful. With instant access to the distressing events in our world via technology and the 24-hour news cycle, it seems impossible to escape this stress. While it is true that as individuals, we can’t do much to affect the world at large, we can cultivate inner peace within ourselves, reduce our chronic stress, and practice forgiveness. This can positively affect our physical and mental health, and can have ripple effects in our families, friendship groups, and communities.
Stress and Health
Our environments and emotions can increase our stress, which in turn affects our physical health. While stress is a normal part of life, prolonged, chronic stress keeps us in “fight or flight” mode by continuously activating our sympathetic nervous system. Our nervous system cannot detect the difference between a lion attacking our home and being exposed to modern, stressful situations.
Being in a constant state of stress means our heart rate and blood pressure remain elevated, making the heart work much harder to keep our blood flowing. If sustained over long periods of time, this can lead to heart attacks and stroke. However, by cultivating inner peace and forgiveness, we can help stop this cascade within our bodies.
Cultivating Inner Peace
There are several ways to create inner peace in our lives. Practicing mindful meditation, as well as deep, slow breathing, calms our central nervous system and helps us remain grounded in challenging situations. Cultivating a daily gratitude practice by being thankful for the simplest things in our lives can also help us navigate life with peace. Being in nature also assists us with cultivating inner peace in tumultuous times. Spending just 20-30 minutes outside in nature has been shown to significantly reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol. Other ways to cultivate inner peace and reduce stress are self-reflection, spending time in solitude, and journaling.
Forgiveness
Forgiveness is another way to cultivate peace and reduce stress in our own lives. Forgiveness is not easy and requires continual practice. First of all, we can forgive ourselves for anything we regret doing in the past. We can also apologize to people we have hurt, intentionally or unintentionally. Forgiving ourselves, rather than continually ruminating over past actions simply intensifies the effects of those actions in our present lives. Let go, and forgive.
The second step in forgiveness is to forgive others. This does not mean that what was done to us was justified, or that we must allow people back into our lives. Forgiveness doesn’t mean that the people who hurt us “got away with it.” It means we “get away” and are free, because we let go of the past. We are able to have new experiences and make new memories, without carrying the heavy weight of previous negative incidents. Holding onto grudges and anger, however, affects our inner peace and can negatively affect our health.
Forgiveness, Stress, and Health
Holding onto resentment about previous slights can affect our physical health, including sleep disturbances, stomach issues, and depression. According to a 2016 study, adults who forgave others over a period of 5 weeks experienced lower stress levels and less depression and anxiety.
Forgiveness can also make our relationships with others more harmonious. Instead of holding grudges, we can release the hurt from the past. We may find ourselves smiling at strangers more often, willing to help people, and developing compassion for people with different world views and life experiences.
Boundaries Are Essential
Forgiveness and inner peace are guarded by strong personal boundaries. While we can try our best to make our inner lives and relationships with others more harmonious, there will always be people who want to anger us, poke at us, troll us online, or insult us. What can we do about this? We can kill them kindness, ignore them, walk away, or delete them. This won’t work in all situations, like the workplace, but practicing this as much as possible can help us guard our precious inner peace.
Practicing forgiveness and cultivating inner peace also does not mean we cannot stand up for ourselves, push back against bullying, or take a stand on an issue in which we believe. It just means after we have said or done what we needed to, we can step back, breathe, ground ourselves, and return to our peaceful center.
Don’t be surprised if your physical and mental health improves after prolonged attempts at inner peace and forgiveness! In addition, you may notice that people are more drawn to you, strangers are more helpful, and life in your neighborhood seems happier. Peace is contagious!
References
Torpy, J., (2007). JAMA. 298(14):1722. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/209139
Harvard Health, (2019). A 20-minute nature break relieves stress. https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/a-20-minute-nature-break-relieves-stress
PsychCentral, (2021). How to Achieve Peace of Mind. https://psychcentral.com/blog/how-to-achieve-peace-of-mind
Weir, K, (2017). Forgiveness can improve mental and physical health. The American Psychological Association. Vol 48. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2017/01/ce-corner
