Dr Braccio & Dave Akerly of 1320 AM discuss GRUDGES ARE BAD FOR YOUR MENTAL HEALTH March 2, 2021 A grudge is maintaining anger, resentment, hurt, sadness, and/or bitterness if someone is believed to have wronged you. This can range from something as small as a perceived negative look to a major betrayal. Most persons, even if they do not admit it or feel their grudge is legitimate and not a grudge, have them at one time or another in their lives. In fact, many persons live most of their lives with them. When they become time-consuming in your thinking and cause you to have a lot of pathological anger, there is clearly a need to examine yourself and find a way to eliminate them. Anger is often a major component of a grudge. Anger is far more destructive to the person with it than the person that is the object of it. Holding a grudge is like hitting yourself with a hammer to show your anger at someone. Obviously, the person being injured is the person with the hammer and not the object of it. Forgiving and letting go of a grudge is not forgetting or overlooking a wrong that has occurred, and maybe the person has not apologized for it, it is rather a way to get on with your life. You cannot let grudges overwhelm you and allow them to negatively impact on you and your relationships. It frees you to live a life without anger and bitterness from grudges which are replaced with peace and an open heart to interact with others. You choose not to ruin the present which of course can lead to ongoing damage in the future.