cover image Forgive to Live: How Forgiveness Can Save Your Life

Forgive to Live: How Forgiveness Can Save Your Life

Dick Tibbits. Integrity Publishers, $22.99 (206pp) ISBN 978-1-59145-470-0

Forgiveness is a choice you can and should make if you want to live longer and be healthy, according to Tibbits, a mental health counselor, speaker and clergyman who is Chief People Officer at Florida Hospital. Using a step-by-step approach, Tibbits explains how we can stop listening to and telling our ""grievance stories"" (tales of past hurts), develop the skills of empathy and humility, change our perspective on the past and focus on goals for the future, leading us to forgiveness. Written in simple, nontechnical language reminiscent of that used in motivational seminars, Tibbits explores the connection between hanging on to past angers and hurts, and hypertension and its associated health problems, and concludes that we should forgive others for our own benefit. (""There is only one thing to consider when you hit the fork in the road that splits forgiveness and unforgiveness: which is the better choice for you?"") The book suffers from repetition and could be substantially shortened. Those seeking a spiritual approach to forgiveness may be disappointed at the lack of reference to faith or religion, but those who like step-by-step guidance, or have enjoyed Tibbits's seminars, will find the text useful.