Title: What Does Holding a Grudge Do to your Health? | Piedmont Healthcare
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What does holding a grudge do to your health?
Grudges hurt the immune system
Why is it so hard to forgive?
How to let go of resentment and unforgiveness
Forgiveness is a gift you give yourself
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Content: What Does Holding a Grudge Do to your Health? | Piedmont Healthcare











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What does holding a grudge do to your health? Holding onto a grudge can significantly impact your mental and physical health. “When we hold onto grudges and resentment, it’s like drinking poison and expecting the other person to get sick,” says Angela Buttimer, MS, NCC, RYT, LPC, a licensed psychotherapist at Thomas F. Chapman Family Cancer Wellness at Piedmont. “ It causes us to carry negative, tense energy in our biology.” Grudges hurt the immune system
“Living in a chronic state of tension disables your body’s repair mechanisms, increasing inflammation and the stress hormone cortisol in the body,” she explains. “ Forgiveness engages the parasympathetic nervous system, which helps your immune system function more efficiently and makes room for feel-good hormones like serotonin and oxytocin.” If you are tempted to dwell on an offense, remind yourself what you are doing to your body when you run the scenario in your mind again. “Your brain doesn’t know what is real and what is imagined,” says Buttimer. “ When you replay in your mind an experience you had six months ago, your body reacts as if you’re having the same experience over and over again.”