For some of us, it’s easy. For others, it’s the hardest thing in the world. Many people view forgiveness as a gift and if you can manage to forgive others relatively seamlessly, the general consensus is that you will reap many more rewards.

Most of us just feel as though these rewards come in the form of “feeling better” though. You only have to take a look at some of Prophet TB Joshua sermons in the past to see that there is a lot of religious background behind this, while perhaps strangely there are several health benefits attached to forgiveness. In truth, all of the benefits do link, but today we’re going to talk about just how forgiveness can benefit your body.

Your immune system is going to benefit

As you can see, some of these benefits can run quite deep from a health perspective. This first one was actually at the center of a study, with research in 2011 highlighting an increase in CD4 cell percentages amongst people who had actively practiced forgiveness.

Sure, some will argue that this is very hard to measure; after all there could be scores of reasons behind an increase in these levels. However, it’s a good indication and when coupled with some of the other factors we’ll now move onto, it’s quite significant evidence.

Your heart will thank you

Once again, we have a study to draw evidence from. This time it surrounds one conducted in 2011, which showed that when both halves of a married couple exercised forgiveness following an argument, both also saw their blood pressure decrease.

If we wind back the clock several years equally impressive results were experienced in 2003 as well. This time, the results were published in the Journal of Behavioral Medicine – which perhaps strengthens the arguments somewhat.

Your sleeping patterns will improve no-end

This is perhaps one of the more expected outcomes from the studies that have been conducted. Once again, the Journal of Behavioral Medicine was at the center of the results, which were published all of the way back in 2005.

The basic premise of this study found that due to the lack of negative feelings, surrounding the likes of anger, depression and tension, participants in the study were able to sleep much better.

Forgiveness isn’t just about the other person

This is perhaps one of the points that is often drawn upon in the religious sermons. A lot of people mistakenly believe that forgiveness is all about the other person, and how they will feel following your change of mindset.

However, it can also help you and the way you feel. Generally, people find it hard to forgive themselves – feeling bad seems to be a staple for modern-day society. Studies have found that those individuals who are able to forgive more easily will be much more self-forgiving though. The upshot of this is that they will lead much happier lives, with far less negativity taking over.