Have you ever had someone do something so terrible to you, that you thought you could never forgive them? I know I have… but after reading about the power of forgiveness, I have made it a practice to incorporate forgiving others as well as myself into my lifestyle. Let me tell you why…
In her book, Radical Remission, author Kelly Turner, (a psychotherapist specializing in integrative oncology) describes conducting over 100 direct interviews and analyzing over 1000 written cases of unexpected remission – when people recover from their illness, despite the odds, with or without the help of conventional medicine, or after conventional medicine has failed.
From her research she found 75 factors could account for the healing, of which nine of these factors occurred with the greatest frequency. Turner’s book, Radical Remission outlines these nine healing factors.
One of the nine factors that these radical remission survivors used was releasing suppressed emotions such as anger at someone who had hurt or slighted them. This involves forgiving the person who created these feeling… something that many people find very difficult.
However, multiple studies have shown that forgiveness is related to improved mental health, especially in cancer patients. This may because of the stress reducing properties of forgiveness.
Life doesn’t always give you what you want, but by forgiving the people that have hurt you, you are liberating yourself from the wounds they’ve caused and the power that person has over you.
Essentially, it brings you to a state where you can move on and make peace for yourself. This is the experience of forgiveness.
Forgiveness is also a process… and it may take a number of steps to get to the stage where you’re ready to forgive.
One starting point to bring yourself to this stage is to begin a gratitude journal. By listing the things for which you are grateful, you can shift your mindset towards the beauty and kindness that surrounds you.
While in this positive state of mind, you can make a list of the people in your life that you need to forgive. When you are ready, writing a letter of forgiveness to the person (or people) that hurt you is one way of accomplishing this daunting task…
Ultimately, forgiving someone else is actually more beneficial for you than it is for the person that you are forgiving. Just like the Radical Remission survivors in Turner’s book, it allows you to release the suppressed emotions that may interfere with your healing process from cancer and other illnesses.
Do you have a gratitude journal?
I’ve taken all my research on diet, environment, lifestyle and mind-body and put it into a very comprehensive program which will help you create your own cancer recovery plan. If you want to take your recovery from cancer to the next level, click on the image below.
Also, if you want to join a free community of people with cancer looking for holistic and integrative strategies to encourage cancer recovery CLICK THIS LINK to join the Holistic Strategies for Cancer Recovery Facebook group to help support your journey and connect you with likeminded people.
