Maybe it's your teacher who did not recognize your efforts, your parents who did not see your difficulties survive in today's world, or your spouse fell in love with someone else. We have all been in one of these situations.
Who has felt more or less abused from time to time? Who has felt more or less rancor, resentment? A friend may have made you a child behind or have begun to criticize you. You may have needed someone, but this places you at the bottom of your priority scale.
Emotions and health
It would be good if negative emotions were accompanied by warning messages, that in teaching programs, we dedicate certain passages to learn to control them. We are talking about a dangerous material. And there is irrefutable evidence that poorly managed negative emotions can be the greatest threat to our health.
For example, depression is accompanied by measurable changes in the functioning of the immune system. People with major depression are more likely to have a heart attack than people without a history of depression. On the other hand, in women, depression seems to increase the risk of osteoporosis. In men, depression induces a decrease in muscle strength over a period of three years.
Anxiety also seems to be associated with the development of heart problems. In addition, it seems to delay recovery after surgery. On the other hand, it is well documented that chronic hostility can be a predisposing factor for heart disease and even death. The best-known example is the Type A behavior guide.
What do we mean by resentment?
Rancor, resentment is a feeling that best represents the emotional state of many people. It is distinguished, like all emotional states, by the generation of behaviors that tend to keep the person in this state. On the other hand, it is often accompanied by a degree of obstinacy or blindness that makes it very resistant to the measures we are trying to eliminate.
Seen in this light, resentment speaks of a wounded person. Either because she felt unfairly treated, because her expectations were frustrated or when her trust was betrayed, the person may feel angry and resentful. That is, a feeling of rejection towards who is the cause of the evil being.
On the other hand, if we express this as a tendency, we could say that a resentful person is someone who has difficulty forgetting differences after an argument with a partner or a friend or who needs a large amount of time to assimilate what happened. , forgive and forget.
How does resentment affect health?
To analyze this topic, Witvliet et al. (2002) studied the emotional and physiological consequences of action motivated by resentment. This is what they did through an experiment. University students were asked to choose real interpersonal offenses. They must have known them in the past. Most of these outrages came from friends, boyfriends, brothers and sisters or relatives.
These were circumstances such as rejection, lying or insulting. Subsequently, the researchers collected self-reports and psychophysiological data. These data include heart rate, blood pressure and facial muscle tension.
Data and self-assessments were collected while the students imagined an answer to these offenses, either with indulgence or with resentment. In the indulgent situation, the students had to think of feelings of pity or empathy for those who had offended them. In the state of resentment, they were asked to remain in the role of the victims. They were asked to focus on the damage and try to resent it.
The way we think influences health
Is it possible that the two ways of approaching the same problem can modify the mood and physiological states of the participants in the study? The answer is yes. When asked to be lenient, the participants had more feelings of empathy and clemency. However, when asked to be petty and resentful, they showed more negative, hostile and sad feelings and a loss of control.
An increase in eyebrow tension, increased heart rate, blood pressure and electrical conductivity of the skin have also been observed. It should be noted that the increased conductivity in the skin indicates a greater activation of the autonomic nervous system, which prepares us to act when we perceive a threat.
Another conclusion was even more surprising. At the end of the experiment, the students were invited to relax. Well, subjects who had fostered feelings of resentment could not relax. The high physiological state of activation that they had achieved when thinking about past offenses was very difficult to eliminate. In other words, they were always upset or anxious long after.
Resentment: a dangerous attitude
What are the implications of the results of this study? Living transient feelings of hostility is certainly not enough to harm our health. However, people who tend to think indefinitely in a habit more dangerous to themselves. Feeding anger, with the resulting physiological responses, can have negative consequences on the functioning of the cardiovascular system and the immune system.
That's why nurturing resentment can be dangerous to our health. Although it is not always easy, forgiving those who offend us can reduce our stress and increase our well-being. We could compare the effects of resentment with the presence of a slab, a weight that affects our physical health, until we get sick. For this reason, for pure selfishness and emotional health, it is important to prioritize well-being, consciously deciding not to continue harboring resentment for what has happened.
