Reading hundreds, sometimes thousands of studies per month, once in a blue moon I find one that I really cherish. Today’s short article explains one of these.
In a world that so often seems dominated with competition, resentment and envy, this study reveals a nice soulful trait that doesn’t cost anything, doesn’t take any time or energy, but does lower blood pressure.
In a recent study out of UC San Diego, the short-term dangers of harboring anger toward loved ones and others amounts to forcing your body to raise its blood pressure unnecessarily.
In contrast, reflecting on a bad situation with a forgiving attitude showed a decrease in blood pressure, recalling the same exact situation.
Dr. Britta Larsen, who led the study, noted that the chain reactions occurring in cognitive functioning and mental processes led to either favorable or unfavorable outcomes- based solely on how the participant viewed a scenario of having been wronged in the past.
Participants were told to reflect on a bad event where they were wronged. In one group, they were told to think about how bad it was. In the other, they were told to view the situation in a forgiving way. Then both groups were distracted for 5 minutes.
Again, the two groups were told to think about the same situation as before, only this time they could think on it in any way they wanted. The group that started out angry ended up with higher blood pressure than the group that started out in forgiveness.
Conquer your emotional stress reactions and lower blood pressure naturally with this guaranteed method…
Love is always the answer. Start each day with love in your mind and your heart and any thing hurtful that happens throughout the day, be it with your loved ones or coworkers, you’re already in a forgiving mindset and therefor showering that person with love. Your BP stays at a more normal rate as well as defusing an otherwise explosive situation.
To err is Human, to Forgive DIVINE! Yoga postures and meditation also lower the blood pressure. Yoga means yoked with GOD! To find Peace sit lotus posture crosslegged on the floor, spine straight, head level. Close eyes, take 2-3 deep breaths, follow your breath- let everthing go, be centered in your heart, lift your hands palms up and offer up the pain to God, Forgive them for they know not what they do, I did not deserve this. In Jesus name, Amen. (Even if all you have room or time for is the deep breath and the mental image of offering it up to God it works just fine. It got me through some very emotionally painful times!!!You must immediately release the anger so as not to damage your own heart and blood pressure and decend into what I call “Black Hole Depression” where you get swallowed up by the anger and depression as it gets deeper and stronger. Let it fly back to God as on the Wings of a Dove! Peace be with You and God’s Angels Guide, Direct and Protect you Always with LOVE!!! Blessings! Elizabeth Christman
excellent people do not think of little things
All of the comments I read are “right on”. Love is the Answer – the greatest gift of all you can give yourself and others.
forgiveness releases Gods hand of blessing, unforgiveness closes the hand of blessing.
Forgiveness sets us free.the person no longer has control over us.
What a wonderful realization! I suppose you had to do the scientific study to make it a valid observation, but don’t we all have experience to prove its validity throughout our days? Recently a friend’s drug-addiced son was alleged to have participated in a break-in at my house but, for lack of hard evidence, I was told by police not to talk to the mother about it. Two weeks passed and I could not live with the thought of a friendship being terminated by a crime that neiter of us had anything todo with. My blood pressure was high. So I phoned her and invited her for tea. She came and gradually we got to the issue.The police had already spoken with her and we could chat about it. We both remained calm and agreed that we should not be controlled by this unfortunate matter. I hope that she gained courage from our open discussion. My blood pressure has been quite normal since.
Dear readers
One of the most importent characters of GOD is forgiveness.Othewise most of humen beings would inter the hell.
I lost my job 3 years ago when the economy collapsed.
I occasionally get very angry with the criminal bankers who caused the collapse. They are now finding that their banks are being sued by American
financial institutions, so they might be brought to book for their actions. However, the UK tax-payer will have to pay out in these legal actions.
It is true that if you don’t think about the offence, your blood pressure will be lower.
However, we are warned that the current recession will last until 2020.
So continuing stress looks inevitable.
I have been doing isometric hand-grip exercises for 4 months now, and my BP has dropped to the 120/81 region, compared to 138/88 beforehand, even though I had been walking and cycling regularly.
Although physical exercise, or stress, does still raise my BP, it does not rise as much, and it quickly falls again.
I feel completely different, and each time the BP comes down after exercise or stress, I experience that as another calming event, which seems to become part of my changing personality.
So I feel that exercise of the right sort is a much better solution than forcing yourself to accept things that perhaps it is quite legitimate to be angry about.
I am a Physician Assistant who is 36 years old and I have been diagnosed with emotional uncontrolled Hypertension and my Cardiologist told me I had to change my lifestyle or else I would end up with a stroke. I have not been able to forgive 6 people who caused my harm in 2008 although I have tried. And I now pray and ask God to help me forgive them. The Cardiologist said I need to practice Yoga and meditation. I am on bp medication now but hope to be able to get off it once I can release my anger and all this pain I have internalized. Thanks for all your advise. Jeremy Holtom, I would really like to learn more about your work on changing thinking
I was going to answer this anyway, but only noticed Diana’s post now, which is to do with my attitude.
I felt very wronged and needlessly rejected by my family after divorce and had a difficult experience after that too lasting many years.
I ended up with High BP and in hospital on occasion,it was so high. I have since reduced medications to a third as they were making things worse.My lifestyle has eased a lot too and my regular exercise going up slowly.
BP is stable and nothing like so high.
My point to make is that I don’t really feel I can forgive, in all honesty, though I strive to understand needless attitudes that still remain in others who once meant the world to me.
From my studies over the years I learned that anger is really internally related to ourselves- for being mugs, doing the wrong thing under stress or often just not being self protective when appropriate.
This negativity is what damages us in many ways, as described here, and SELF FORGIVENESS should not be omitted from our list of helpful things to do/develop.
I hope this helps Diana N -as lying to oneself, when unable to truly forgive, is another way to low self esteem and ongoing internal stress development.
I have always been hard on myself, too
Keep caring and don’t leave out yourself!