Resentment is the experience of a negative emotion (anger, bitterness or hatred, for instance felt as a result of a real or imagined wrong done to you. Resentment poisons our minds, imprisons us, weighs us down, and worst of all, allows someone to inflict pain upon us. If we are allowing this to happen, then we are asking someone to continue to hurt us. This is the real cost of resentment. By harboring resentment, we are choosing to suffer.
I saw an awesome quote today written by Larry James
"I believe that to withhold forgiveness is to choose to continue to remain the victim. Remember, you always have the choice"
I saw a lot of truth in that.
The most important thing to understand about resentment is that you are allowing the pain to continue. You are giving the person who hurt you an extension of negative power over your feelings. Yet, you don't have to. That other person is probably out having a good time right now, and not even thinking about you or your feelings. Why should you be thinking about them? Occupy your mind with better things.
Here are some questions for you to ponder to help get over any resentment that you may feel
* Would you ask someone who's hurt you to hurt you some more, and to continue to hurt you over and over again?
* Would you deliberately poison yourself?
* Would you tie yourself to a torture rack and ask someone to inflict pain upon you? (Probably not, unless you are acting out scenes from 50 Shades of Grey and are in the redroom LOL) Figured I would throw a little humor into that one :-)
*Would you load up two sacks full of bricks and carry them around all day, even though they do nothing but weigh you down, yet serve no useful purpose?
I know these probably seem like silly questions but obviously, the answers to them are NO. To do these things would be stupid. What normal person would choose to be hurt in these ways? Yet, that's exactly what we are doing when we refuse to forgive, or don't learn to forgive. We just bring more hurt upon ourselves. Resentment hurts us more than the person that we are holding the resentment against. It's not worth it. Life's too short. Enjoy it
See many other inspirational thoughts for motivation here
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