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PEER-REVIEWED
Comparative Study
| Published: September 25, 2016
FORGIVENESS: The Way to Holistic Well-Being
Research Fellow, Dept. Of Psychology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, U.P., India Google Scholar More about the auther
Professor, Dept. Of Psychology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, U.P., India Google Scholar More about the auther
DIP: 18.01.177/20160304
DOI: 10.25215/0304.177
ABSTRACT
In an era of globalization where generations believe in lawsuits, it can sometimes seem like forgiveness is a concept from TretaYug (Era of Ramayan, the Hindu mythology) or Biblical times. However starting from last two decades of 20th century, developmental, social and clinical psychologists have begun to study the concept of forgiveness more intensively and scientifically(McCullough,2000).A wealth of research suggests that Forgiveness is a form of healing that considers the whole person- body, mind, spirit, and emotions- to achieve optimal health and well-being. Studies have found that the act of forgiveness can reap huge rewards for our health, lowering the risk of heart attack; improving cholesterol levels & sleep; reducing pain, blood pressure, and levels of anxiety, depression and stress. Research points to an increase in the forgiveness-health connection as we age. Thus, field of psychology needs a proactive, positive approach emphasizing strengths, rather than continuing in the downward spiral of negativity trying to fix weaknesses.
Keywords
This is an Open Access Research distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any Medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
© 2016, S Athwaria, A K Srivastava
Received: July 11, 2016; Revision Received: August 25, 2016; Accepted: September 25, 2016
Article Overview
ISSN 2348-5396
ISSN 2349-3429
18.01.177/20160304
10.25215/0304.177
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Published in Volume 03, Issue 4, July-September, 2016