FORGIVENESS IS STRENGTH AND UNFORGIVENESS IS A DISEASE

FORGIVENESS IS STRENGTH AND UNFORGIVENESS IS A DISEASE

Published on November 1, 2015, Muhammad Haris Jahangir. Manager Express Operations Karachi at TCS Private Limited

Unforgiveness is classified in medical books as a disease. According to Dr. Steven Sandiford, chief of surgery at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, refusing to forgive makes people sick and keeps them that way.

With that in mind, forgiveness therapy is now being used to help treat diseases, such as cancer.

"It's important to treat emotional wounds or disorders because they really can hinder someone's reactions to the treatments, even someone's willingness to pursue treatment," Sandiford explained.

Of all cancer patients, 61 percent have forgiveness issues, and of those, more than half are severe, according to research by Dr. Michael Barry.

"Harboring these negative emotions, this anger and hatred, creates a state of chronic anxiety," he said. "Chronic anxiety very predictably produces excess adrenaline and cortisol, which deplete the production of natural killer cells, which is your body's foot soldier in the fight against cancer," he explained.

 Barry saif the first step in learning to forgive is to realize how much we have been forgiven by God. Most people don't realize what a burden of anger and hatred were until they let them go.

MAJOR UNIVERSITIES FINDINGS REGARDING UNFORGIVENESS AND DISEASE

“Chronic unforgiveness causes stress. Every time people think of their transgressor, their body responds. By decreasing your unforgiveness it will cut down your health risk. Now, if you can forgive, that can actually strengthen your immune system“. [Virginia Common Wealth University]

“Forgiveness could boost the immune system by reducing the production of the stress hormone cortisol” [Rockefeller University – New York]

“When you hold onto the bitterness for years, it stops you from living your life fully. As it turns out, it wears out your immune system and hurts your heart” [Stanford University Center for Research in Disease Prevention]

“Those who received forgiveness training showed improvements in the blood flow to their hearts” [University of Wisconsin – Research Dept]

Researchers at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research found that forgiveness was linked with better self-reported mental and physical health.

A new study from Duke University Medical Center demonstrates that those who forgive others experience lower levels of chronic pain and less associated psychological problems like anger and depression than those who have not forgiven.

Studies at Ohio States University found that the highly stressed women had lower levels of natural killer cells than women who reported less stress.

 “Natural killer cells have an extremely important function with regard to cancer because they are capable of detecting and killing cancer cells. Psychological interventions, such as forgiveness, have important roles in reducing stress and improving quality of life, but also in extending survival.” [Barbara Andersen, Professor of Psychology, Ohio State University]

“The program’s preliminary work suggests that forgiveness lowered the stress hormone cortisol that in turn affects the immune system, but only when the patients forgave the ones they blamed”. [University of Maryland – Institute of Human Virology]

“When I suggest emotional healing to people with cancer, they always misunderstand me. They hear it as emotional support. They think I either just want to comfort them, or show them how to have a more positive attitude. They don’t get that something like forgiveness might be the key to their getting well. I see their eyes glaze over when I go on to say that emotional toxicity is most likely the cause of their cancer, and that forgiveness, if used with appropriate treatments and lifestyle changes that address the physical, is a ‘first-line’ primary treatment. Their inability to hear this as a strategy for survival, is a measure of how brainwashed we all are into thinking that treatment for cancer must always be harsh, drastic and violent. With our War-on-Cancer mind-set, it’s hard to imagine that something so seemingly soft and gentle as forgiveness could be the answer to our problem.” [Colin Tipping, Director, Institute of Radical Forgiveness]

Chap. Dr. Richard Ward, J.C.D., Ph.D., I am an Orthodox Priest, Psychotherapist and Board-Certified Medical Hypnoanalyst with the American Academy of Medical Hypnoanalysts. My specialty is in The Therapy of Spiritual Illnesses. I use Orthodox Psychotherapy and Theocentric Hypnoanalysis which functions beyond the limits of science, without ignoring it and at the same time it helps both the psychosomatic composition and the socialization of a person. For more information go to; www.drrichardward.com or call: 530-644-4588 or 916-812-9706 for appointments or questions.