Nobody is perfect. It could have been unintentional, but you were the target of their low moment and got wronged in the process. You are feeling the range of lousy emotions: anger, sadness, shame, anxiety, embarrassment, regret, and might even start to slip into a depression. When someone suggests you forgive the instigator, you can't help but reply: "Why should I forgive him/her/them?" "He/She/They don't deserve my forgiveness" "I'll never be able to forgive him/her/them for that" "Why should he/she/they get away with that?"
These researchers explored the influence of forgiveness on the memories of victims and perpetrators of a wrong. In particular, they explored whether forgiveness affects people's ability to remember the details of past events, whether they can remember the emotions they experienced in that past event, and also whether that memory still elicits an emotion. Across several studies, participants were given a prompt to remember a past event.
Alanna Quinn Idris reflects on her life after surviving a brutal assault, enduring significant injuries including the loss of an eye and multiple facial injuries.
