Free Yourself

There is no ill feeling quite like bitterness. We have all been there before. Someone wronged us, did us dirty, left us hanging, or betrayed us. The pain often stays with us for awhile, reverberating throughout our daily lives and follows us into the future. When our pain over the actions of another has stayed with us this much we’ve found our way into a web of bitterness. Often times that bitterness makes us want to seek vengeance, but we need to talk about why holding on to bitterness and a list for vengeance is fruitless and a waste of time.

What leads to bitterness? I know, the question is rhetorical. We are all well aware of the occurrences that lead to the path of bitterness: abandonment of a loved one, betrayal of a friend, even a random scuffle with a complete stranger. Whether it be big or small, there’s always something occurring in our lives that leaves us with ill feelings that linger and eat us up. Though we are justified in having these lingering feelings of negative emotions, it’s very damaging to our mental and emotional health, as well as our growth and development as individuals to keep harboring them.

Just in case you’re wondering, yes, bitterness does effect more than just your emotions. When we harbor bitterness think about how it consumes our daily lives. You can’t even enjoy the most basic pleasures of life like spending time with friends and family or participating in your favorite hobbies when your mind is constantly wrapped around a transgression that was dealt to you. This is also where the physical territory of your life gets effected.

A bitter mind lacks focus, so this means that you may find yourself mentally inhibited in your professional life as well, meaning your bitterness is keeping you from performing properly at your job. Furthermore it can also effect your state of proper rest. I myself have had plenty of times where I was bitter at someone for something, big or small, so I kept myself up all night thinking about how mad I was at the other person or people, and because I didn’t get proper rest the night before thanks to my bitter stupor I went to work or school the next day tired and frustrated, lacking the energy I needed to handle my business.

Bitterness comes with consequences that can lead to legal trouble. As we’ve seen throughout the world, a lot of crimes of passion have taken place as a result of bitterness. How murders have occurred or heated fights that led to a fatality all because someone was bitter? Too many for us to count, but that’s the danger of bitterness. It’s like a poison that convinces you to not only hold on to it, but seek retribution towards the person who caused it just so the ego can feel like it has gained some level of justice or satisfaction towards the perpetrator(s).

In the heat of the moment these type of choices feel like the proper ones to make, but once you end up facing the consequences for making them the post anger clarity starts to set it. Get yourself in legal trouble and you’ll have a lot to think about while you’re sitting in a jail cell. Commit a crime out of bitterness that leads to a fatality and you’ll have the rest of your life locked away to ask was it all really worth it.

Perhaps the greatest toll that bitterness takes on our lives is when it jeopardizes our relationships. Because bitterness breeds such negative energy, when we wear it as much as we do the people who are closest to us will feel the effects of damage. That means we’ll start taking our anger out on innocent people who didn’t deserve it. Of course this often leads to those people having to abandon us because no one wants to feel the negative effects of something for which they are not responsible. Ask yourself if you were okay with being the emotional punching bag who did nothing wrong, but still has to bare the brunt.

The bottom line here is the baggage of bitterness is too much to carry. I once heard someone say you have to let go of yesterday because yesterday already let go of you. A life of bitterness is one that robs you of everything and everyone that matters. So let go of bitterness, free your mind and your emotions from its chains, because if you don’t then your heart will never know what it truly means to be free.