3 Tips for Eliminating Resentments

Prejudice and meanest is prevalent throughout our society. These abuse mindsets are commonplace in all races and age groups. Many people are scared and distrustful of others, so they lash out verbally or physically either subtly by bullying, harassment, intimidation, and teasing or overtly by physical harm.

What if you were the brunt due to some of harassment, lashing or outburst of anger? What was the takeaway? Anger, bitterness, hurt and resentment and feelings of being wronged.

If you hold onto past wrongs or bad feelings either against yourself or others, then you are probably are stuck in the past. Even though your remembrance is subconscious and out of your awareness. One of the most damaging feelings you hold onto that will block your growth or fulfillment is resentments. For the most part, you are not even aware of the baggage you carry because the material is not part of your conscious mind. 

Clarity

Let me ask you, have other people taken advantage of you? Have you gone through dangerous and painful situations in your life? Do you feel cheated, betrayed, humiliated or hurt in some way by another? Are you holding onto the wrongs that were done to you by another? Of course, you are. Can’t seem to let them go, no matter what you do? 

It is a standard course from time to time as you grow up to be cheated, betrayed, humiliated, hurt or wronged and wanting some type of repayment, get even or revenge. Doing, holding onto or waiting is called a resentment. 

Resentment is one of the most personally damaging feelings or thoughts you can hold onto and carry throughout your life. Bitterness can actually stunt your maturity, stunt your ability to be happy, cancel success, or be a barrier toward moving forward with your life. 

Definition of Resentment

A resentment is defined as ill will, ill feelings or thoughts that form when you are wronged by self, someone or something and you hold onto deep hurtful and painful emotions, store it subconsciously, real or imagined. These wrongs are formed as a reaction to a harmful life event where you perceive to have wronged in some way by someone or betrayed by yourself. The power of resentment is the emotional charge stays active and is held active, and revenge is required before you can let it go. 

Resentments held onto can cause many intense reactive emotions such as anger, depression, doubt, disappointment, fear, panic, rage and/or regret which remain alive over time in the subconscious mind without personal awareness. Resentments have a powerful influence and direct how you relate to yourself and how you think about others. Most of all resentments manifest themselves in your behavior and emotions. 
A resentment is defined as ill wills, ill feelings, and/or sick thoughts affect the way you perform daily without your knowledge. Ideas such as: “I do not deserve anything because of what was done to me” or “I am nothing because what was done to me.” 
This type of thinking causes the formation of negative beliefs about yourself over time, and eventually, the negative beliefs become a mental barrier to your accepting good things, happiness and success. 

A True Story  

I would like to relate to a story of a woman I coached who was consciously blocking herself from moving forward in her life. Her name was Sue. She could not enjoy positive things in her life, was not happy and felt she was not deserving of anything good because of the abuse she had experienced growing up. To numb out bad feelings that were forever surfacing she gravitated toward addicting herself to alcohol. She came to understand she was not moving ahead with her life because Sue was holding onto resentments she had accumulated from episodes of abuse and being wronged by others. More enlightening was when she realized that she was also carrying resentments for not being able to stop her abuser or standing up for herself with others who bullied and judged her. Sue perceived it as an inability to control herself, or her overuse of alcohol landed her in a treatment center.

Recovery Story 

To help her move forward, gave her a powerfully customized writing assignment – What are the benefits of holding onto resentments? 

Here is what she wrote.

“I learned very early as a result of my coaching and my addiction recovery from alcohol I was hanging onto resentments. I also learned how much the resentments could lead me to a significant setback with my PTSD symptoms and into a relapse with my alcohol. Yet it was so easy to think I had a disease or I was damaged. What I thought was correct and comfortable. Holding onto my old resentments was my desire to achieve resolution. If I had not taken a hard look at why I continued to hang onto my existing resentments, I knew I would continue to experience barriers to what I wanted out of life. I knew I had come up with a long list of reasons why I continued to hang onto those old resentments. I want the people that hurt me to experience the same level of hurt and I was not going to let go of holding on until then. 

4 reasons she kept holding onto old resentments

First of all, unaware you were harboring any ill will, ill feelings or ill thoughts against others for wrongs they did to me or maybe I did against myself.

The second reason, I thought if I stop holding onto those resentments against someone else they would be getting away with whatever they had done to against me too quickly. I felt I had to keep their feet to the fire to make them pay for the wrongs they did to me. The problem with what I was doing was that I was the only one suffering. The truth was that the person I was holding the resentments against was not affected by my holding on at all, but I still was. I became angry that they supposedly got away with something that was wrong, hurtful and damaging to me.

Reason number three, I felt powerful by holding onto my resentments. Holding resentments is the only time in my life I would feel mighty. It made me feel like I was still in control of the situation and I had all the power. This coincides with a feeling of a false sense of justice. With that false sense of justice, I felt like I was the judge. As the judge I would have the power to make a ruling and hand out a sentence then the person would never be free from what he or she did. In reality, it was me who was never going to be free.

 The third reason I held onto resentments was that I wanted the person to understand all the weight I had carried for all those years since the “wrong.” By not letting go caused me to become vindictive, bitter and angry both at myself and other people. So holding onto the weight of the hurt and negative energy of being wrong would not allow me to be free and happy with myself.

Lastly, holding onto resentments caused me to be angry, bitter, disappointed and sad. I came to know if I genuinely stopped holding on to these wrongs I could forgive myself and the person it would release myself emotionally and spiritually with a real sense of being free for the first time. It is not that I have forgotten what they had done but realized that I can heal myself from the inside out.”
When she processed the assignment, she had an “ah-ha moment” and a total sense of release.

3 Tips on How to Let Go of Resentments

Here is a quick way to relieve yourself of old resentments. 

#1. First, you must allow yourself to search your mind for all the ill will of wrongs done you or you thought were done to you in your life no matter how minor. 

#2. Second, decide whether wrongs were real or imaged. Sometimes you get caught up in the emotion of the situation. When you identify the wrongs done to you, the mistakes lose their power, and you are able to let go of them. Then you can assess the value of why you have been holding onto the wrongs against the feeling of blaming yourself or waiting for the other person to hurt as much as you did or for the idea that you let them happen. 

#3. Third, write down the resentments that you want to release and burn the list and let the smoke rise into the air. While the smoke goes upward visualize your body becoming unburdened and free. The benefit of doing this will generate new empowerment in your core being. This resurgence of personal power will add a lot to your character and increase your confidence as well as the quality and substance of your life. Positiveness happens when you invest, let go of negative and nurture you. 

Take Away

I am willing to bet that if you are reading this article, you already have a strong suspicion that you are carrying old resentments. If you said “yes” so much of what was stated above is right for you, so you need to begin to free yourself from all your old resentment baggage that depletes your emotional energy. 

So take ownership of yourself by investing in who you are at this moment. Understand you can't be affected by something that you are not holding onto. Let go, be positive and strive to make a positive change in your life.

For more information visit my website and click here to receive a free eBook.
                    Coach Bill