How to Heal from Hate and Embrace Forgiveness for a Happier Life

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The sad strength of hate in comparison to love is that it is unambiguous as an emotion. Even if I tell you unequivocally that I love you, you will still ask me for validation. “Are you sure?” But, if I tell you, “I hate you“, you won’t even question that sentiment once. You won’t ask me, “How do you know, we are strangers to each other?”

Your reaction is understandable because the history of humanity tells us that we might be incapable of such unconditional love for universal brotherhood. The lives of our forefathers have taught us that we’ve lived with centuries of communal turmoil and brutality.

And if it is any indication of our predisposition to feelings of disgust and animosity, we might continue to live out our lives either dwelling in incendiary rhetoric or instigating hateful acts of violence against others.

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Hate is our inherent self-defense mechanism to protect us from things we don’t want to identify with. It’s our way to guard ourselves from our deepest and darkest discomforts.

Our language and acts of cruelty towards others show ourselves a mirror to what we hate about ourselves. If you don’t like yourself so much, you engage in self-destructive activities. When you are not satisfied with certain aspects of your life, you engage in destruction on a massive scale.

If you’re filled with anger towards me, I can apologize for my infractions. If you’re fearful of me, I can assuage you with my kind words of assurances. But, if you’re filled with spitting rage and hate towards me because you can’t identify with what I am and what I stand for, what can I do?

There is hope even in deep division and hostility. You can begin the journey of healing by understanding what you stand for. What makes up your identity. What are your vulnerabilities? Is aggression, and competition within you being instigated by the culture you’re surrounded by?

Paper protests on the streets, or keyboard courage with vile comments to strangers, is this what you really value? You have a choice to dictate what you get tied down to. Start moving today with accepting yourself and others for who they are.

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George Santayana, Character And Opinion In The United States:

 

“There is much forgetfulness, much callow disrespect for what is past or alien; but there is a fund of vigour, goodness, and hope such as no nation ever possessed before. In what sometimes looks like American greediness and jostling for the front place, all is love of achievement, nothing is unkindness; it is a fearless people, and free from malice, as you might see in their eyes and gestures, even if their conduct did not prove it. This soil is propitious to every seed, and tares must needs grow in it; but why should it not also breed clear thinking, honest judgment, and rational happiness?”

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