When people offend or hurt us, we tend to react differently depending on our beliefs about that person, our feelings of trust and our past experiences. How do we know when it will be a good idea to give a person a second chance and forgive them? Forgiveness can be fundamental for human relationships but it is also important to protect yourself in some cases and simply avoid toxic people.
Everyone needs to draw their own line for themselves when it comes to giving second chances. Even though it can be challenging to forgive someone who has hurt you, the reality is that people feel happier when they share more compassion and empathy rather than anger. People are adaptable and able to learn from their mistakes, so as long as you explain to someone how they hurt you they may be able to change their ways.
Forgiveness and second chances can actually be a useful and practical solution for conflict and can even save emotional energy for everyone involved. It also allows other people to be more forgiving to you in the future if you were to make any mistakes. It can ease your mind knowing that your relationships with other people don’t have to involve so many expectations.
There are some cases where you may feel unable to give someone a second chance. Maybe they have hurt you many times in the past, don’t seem remorseful about what they’ve done or they refuse to acknowledge that they made a mistake. It is always your decision to follow your intuition about forgiveness and choose when to give someone a second chance.
Although it can sometimes be easy to shut someone out of your life, more often you will feel better and open to others when you are able to forgive.