Task B: "It's one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, to forgive. Forgive everybody.

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Title: “From forgiveness to peace, the path to overcoming hatred.”

The life of a man can be filled with many negative people, people who may cause harm
upon him physically or psychologically. However, it is possible to heal oneself from the scars
that are left behind from such suffering. Learning to forgive those that brought harm upon
us is one way to find peace in the mind.

Forgiveness allows us to heal and find calmness in the mind. When we have been
deliberately harmed by someone, we often begin to feel hate towards them. And so,
whenever we think of them, we are in a state of hate. However, if we choose to forgive
them in our minds, we are responding to them from a place of understanding instead of
hate. Understanding someone for their actions will often lead to a more peaceful response
in the mind whenever we think of them. Consequently, we will experience more peace
because we chose to forgive instead of hate. For instance, if a man is verbally abused one
day at work by a colleague, he may feel hatred towards him initially. However, forgiving him
in his mind will allow him to come from a place of general understanding instead of hate,
and this will likely lead to him maintaining a positive state of mind. And so, peace can be
maintained in the mind by choosing to forgive instead of hate.

My ability to forgive took time to develop. But when I was finally able to forgive those who
had hurt me in the past, I was able to find more peace in my mind. One person that I used to
hate was a cricket team member of mine who used to pick on me and call me rude names in
front of everyone else. This often made me feel left out and quite frustrated. For a while,
this continued, but my attitude towards him changed completely when I found out one day
that he was being abused by his father at home. As soon as I was aware of this, a great load
of hatred I had for him had dissolved already. This situation allowed me to understand that
he hurt others because he himself was being hurt, and thus, I was able to forgive him. Later,
I discovered that to have an understanding attitude towards those who have hurt you, you
do not require the knowledge of why they hurt you. This allowed me to forgive people in my
mind more easily down the road, which ultimately led to the healing of many negative
emotions that were associated with them. Thus, in this way I learned to find peace in my
mind through forgiveness and be less affected emotionally by those who attempted to hurt
me.

Overall, forgiveness allows us to heal ourselves of hatred and bring the mind back to peace.
Being in a state of mental peace for many is a gift. Thus, forgiveness is probably “one of the
greatest gifts you can give yourself”.