Forgiveness
Name
Institution
affiliation
Part A.
Forgiveness is a skill that is effective
in healing relationships and keeping it going strong (Toussaint, Worthington
& Williams, 2015). Despite being a vital skill, my performance of the
forgiveness skill varies when I am with different individuals depending on the
close connection between the people. Firstly, I have good performance with the
skill when I am with close friends and family members. This is because they
have a close relationship that is built on love and empathy. Therefore, caring
become the default way of relating such that when a friend or a family member
wrongs me, I tend to forgive and let go quickly despite the hurt. As a result,
it is much easier to resolve conflicts by believing in the good intentions of
the friend or partner. Also, it is due to the fact that we always believe that
no one is perfect.
On the other hand, my performance of the
skill is bad when I am with strangers or people who are not closely related to me.
When a person is hurt by a stranger, they intend to briefly step outside their
pain (Toussaint, Worthington & Williams, 2015). It is easy to get lost in
hurt, blind to anything beyond it due to the inability to understand the
perspective of the strangers. Therefore, it becomes hard to forgive and let go
due to lack of close relationship to salvage. At first instance, people think
that there is no future to consider with strangers. However, forgiveness is not
only useful for repairing friendship but also for one's well-being. I forgive
quickly when am with close friends and family members and take a lot of time to
forgive those who are not closely related to me.
In
summation, people perform differently with the forgiveness skill when with
friends and strangers. However, it should be made a routine so as to ensure
reduced stress and increased overall psychological well-being.
Part B.
Part C.
The capacity for a person
to accomplish forgiveness and let go all the past damages is a standout amongst
the most basic difficulties numerous people face with regards to achieving
personal happiness and peace (Toussaint, Worthington &
Williams, 2015). Just like inside the class the
ability to achieve forgiveness is very crucial outside class as it is
absolutely necessary for long-term emotional and mental health.
I have had the
opportunity to have an experience with the skill especially when a close friend
and family member wronged me. I was able to effectively let go of the anger,
resentment, and thoughts of revenge due to the betrayal of the said people.
Despite the perceived or real offense, hurt or wrongdoing against me, I was
able to let go. Also, I have learned that forgiving does not mean denying the
responsibility of the person for hurting me nor justifying or minimizing the
act. Instead, I learned that it means the willingness to forgive the people
without excusing or condoning what they did, and let it go.
Forgiveness is a choice
and outside of class, it is helpful to uncover and let go of anger and
restoring hope in addition to moving on with life (Toussaint,
Worthington & Williams, 2015). To forgive
and let go, one needs to work through the emotions using stress management
techniques like deep breathing, exercise, and guided meditations. Another
experience with forgiveness outside class is that forgiveness helps in
releasing us from past hurts, enslavement, and memories. As a result, it
increases optimism and hope for the future. Also, it restores positive
thoughts, behaviors, and feelings as well as promoting the overall
psychological well-being of an individual. In summation, it is crucial for
forgive as it reduces stress, increases compassion, and ensures hope for the
future.
Part D.
A person’s performance of
the forgiveness skill is determined by how well they are able to control their
emotions because achieving it and letting go of the past hurts is quite
challenging (Toussaint, Worthington & Williams, 2015). For quite some time I have thought that I was good
at being able to forgive to restore my peace of mind as well as the
relationship. However, a close friend whom I really trust surprised me when he
said that I was not good at letting go of the past hurts due to the fact that I
kept reminding him of the way other have offended me.
On one hand, I agree with
him because it is certainly not easy to achieve total forgiveness and let go of
the past hurts. It is true because sometimes I get hurt so bad that I am not
able to stop feeling resentful or angry towards the people for a flaw, offense
or mistake particularly when I am always good to them. In addition, forgiveness
does not happen overnight as it is a conscious decision and thus requires time
to let go of the bundled negative emotions.
On the other hand, I
disagree with him because forgiveness is crucial to attaining personal peace
and happiness and I always make an effort to let go of the anger, resentment,
and thoughts of revenge despite the hurt or wrongdoing against me. However, I
have learned with time that forgiveness is an essential skill and keeping
revisiting issues over and over tend to cause more and more damage to my
relationship with close friends and family members. Therefore, I have taught
myself to forgive to enjoy the benefits of forgiving and letting go.
In summation, I have discerned that I am not that perfect at
forgiving and therefore, I have made huge steps in learning the skill to ensure
that I do not damage my relationship with others.
Part E.
People from different
backgrounds tend to perform differently with regards to forgiveness. This
implies that people of different age, sex, race, education, and national
background usually perform forgiveness skill differently (Toussaint
et al., 2015).
Firstly, children forgive
the quickest compared to adults because they allow themselves to be entirely
emotionally present. In addition, children allow themselves to move through
their emotions more quickly than adults. Children cannot easily maintain a
friendship for some time without being able to forgive, unlike adults. According
to much research, women are more empathetic than men. Therefore, women easily
develop empathy towards their offenders. This implies that women are better at
forgiving than men. Men usually have a harder time forgiving than women because
forgiveness is crucial in freeing women from the past hurts thus achieving
greater social functioning. Women have been taught from childhood to empathize
with others by putting themselves in their shoes (Toussaint
et al., 2015).
Different races encounter
different cultural and structural contexts affecting their ability to forgive.
For instance, blacks who have undergone serious discrimination tend to have a
strong dislike for their counterparts. However, in general, blacks tend to be
more forgiving than the white due to their strong religious backgrounds. On the
other hand, highly educated people fully understand the importance of
forgiveness and thus tend to forgive quicker than less educated people.
Therefore, the educated people always try to build their relationship on love
and empathy. In addition, people of good national background understand the
importance of resolving conflicts by acting in caring ways towards one another
for strong long-term relationships. In summation, people from different
backgrounds tend to perform differently with regards to forgiveness due to
their different cultural and structural contexts.
Part F.
Forgiveness is a crucial
life skill; however, it requires patience, instruction, and practice (Toussaint
et al., 2015). Therefore, it is important that
people be taught to forgive as it has many benefits.
Although some people are
born with the forgiving and peaceful nature, a good number of others are not
blessed with the gift and hence have to be taught. It was hard to teach the
person the forgiveness skill as we had a short time and one has to spend a
considerable amount of time teaching people the trait of empathy for others.
This, in turn, allows teaching people about forgiveness to be much difficult.
However, with the guidance on how to handle their lessons and emotions on day
to day coping skills required to achieve a pleasant life within the society and
community.
Despite that, I used several
activities to teach and encourage forgiveness. For instance, I discovered that
in order to effectively teach the life skill I had to inspire empathy. I had to
analyze and explain the situation such that the person could consider the
feelings of others. In addition, I discerned that in order to develop the
skill, people have to have dialogue after regaining composure after the
argument.
In addition, I learned
that acceptance really helps. A great freedom exists in just accepting that
something happened and although it will hurt for some time, it will finally be
over. No one can change the past but can learn from it and use the knowledge in
creating a happier future (Toussaint et al., 2015). In summation, it requires time to teach forgiveness
skill. However, acceptance and dialogues are the first steps to learning to
forgive.
Part G.
When a famous person
unconditionally forgives those who have deeply hurt them, they tend to inspire
many other people to pursue the forgiveness skill in their own lives. However,
the crucial life skill does not come easily to people. a good example of a
famous person who was good at this skill was Pope John Paul II who forgave his
would-be assassin.
In 1981, the late Pope
was riding past a crowd in an open car; suddenly a man named Mehmed Ali Agca
shot him four times in an assassination attempt (Gillis, 2016). The Pope was seriously wounded in the process and
nearly died. The Pope had to undergo emergency surgery at the hospital in order
to save his life and he finally recovered.
However, two years later,
Pope John Paul II visited Agca, his would-be assassin, in prison cell where he let
him know that he had forgiven him unconditionally. In the process, the Catholic
leader clasped the hands of Agca, the same hands that have earlier pointed the
gun at him and pulled the trigger that fired four shots at him on his own hands
as they both talked to each other. When the Pope rose to leave, they both shook
hands.
After coming out from the assassin’s prison cell, Pope John
Paul II said that they spoke together with Agca, the man who tried to kill him
as a brother whom he had pardoned. In my opinion, this is one of the most
famous acts of forgiveness. Despite the person trying to assassinate him, the
Pope had it in his heart to forgive him. However, the miracle of forgiveness
usually begins with someone being willing to move beyond the past pain in faith
that God will help them forgive and then experience freedom (Toussaint
et al., 2015).
Part H.
The act of sincerely
forgiving others is a powerful choice that effectively demonstrates empathy and
self-love for others (Toussaint et al., 2015). I have learned that it allows those who choose to
forgive, the chance to release negative energy thus not becoming overwhelmed by
anger. In addition, the ability for people to manage emotions in a productive
and effective way does not come easy for most people. Therefore, the act of
forgiveness in a crucial life skill that should be learned by all people and
regularly put into practice.
In addition, I have
learned that there are several activities to be used in teaching forgiveness
skill. One has to let go of stress, have a dialogue, and inspire empathy. On
the other hand, I have learned that acceptance greatly helps because replaying
negative events in one’s mind only get them stuck in a loop.
Also, closure is not
essential. Forgiveness is a choice that everyone can make regardless of how the
other person is handling the situation. One might not always get the closure
that they hoped for and therefore should just choose to forgive and let go. Additionally,
expressing emotions and exploring the issue from two sides is important in
tapping into empathy as well as increasing forgiveness. Finally, I have learned
that time heals and people should have the space to process their emotions at
their own pace.
In summation, forgiveness
is an important life skill that requires patience, instruction, and practice so
as to reduce life stress and increase optimism and hope for the future.
Therefore, different approaches should be used in teaching the skill because
people from different backgrounds tend to perform differently with regards to
the skill.
Reference
Gillis,
C. (2016). Political Papacy: John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Their
Influence. Routledge.
Toussaint,
L., Worthington, E., & Williams, D. R. (Eds.). (2015). Forgiveness
and health: Scientific evidence and theories relating forgiveness to better
health. Dordrecht: Springer.