Forgiveness, Mindfulness, and Health

Forgiveness and mindfulness have both been associated with a variety of salutary health-related outcomes. Though thought to
be related to one another, very little empirical work has examined the association of forgiveness and mindfulness, including
in the context of health. Consistent with theory regarding the forgiveness–health association and the definition of health
behavior, we hypothesized that mindfulness would play a role in the relationship between forgiveness and health. Cross-sectional
mediation-based analyses were conducted on data collected from a sample of 368 undergraduate students in southern Appalachia.
Participants were 73.64% female and 88.32% Caucasian, with an average age of 21.62 years. Mindfulness played a role in the
association of forgiveness of self, forgiveness of others, and forgiveness of situations with physical health status, somatic
symptoms, mental health status, and psychological distress. In the context of the forgiveness–health association, mindfulness
may play a primary role for forgiveness of others and largely a secondary role for forgiveness of self and forgiveness of
situations. The role of mindfulness may be explained by the (un)forgiveness–energy hypothesis, such that forgiveness may allow
energy to be invested in mindful processes. Religious/spiritual diversity may impact the association of forgiveness and mindfulness.
As this study may be the first to examine mindfulness as a health behavior and only the second empirical study to explicitly
examine the association between forgiveness and mindfulness, more research is needed to understand the relationships among
forgiveness, mindfulness, and health.