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“Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.”
- Nelson Mandela
I struggle with this one a lot, I definitely have a lot of resentment built up as I've grown up. But holding all in just makes my life worse, it only hurts me. It is mental prison of sorts. I think there's another Mandela quote that states exactly that as well.
It took me a long time to realize that I'm not forgiving the people I forgive because they deserve it. I'm forgiving them because I need the problem to be over.
I think of that quote often as well but now I'm seeing it differently than before.
I interpreted it as advice to merely let resentment go but it could just as easily instead be to orient those feelings of resentment towards actually resolving what led to them in the first place.
Not just reflection but practice besides.