Remain a prisoner of yourself if you do not forgive

Forgiveness is granting free pardon and to cancel all claims due to an offense or debt. Forgiveness is a human attribute which is not easily portrayed as the definition implies. Sometimes it takes great effort and courage to forgive. In fact, practically speaking, imagine forgiving someone who has caused you much pain and you are currently in a psychological trauma. To some Individuals, it is totally unthinkable and impossible. But is this enough reason to make us refuse to forgive?
Okay! It is absolutely normal to feel pain and hurt by an offender but let's say you refuse to forgive the person. What then? Does it change anything? You may be in a position to frustrate the Individual or per say hope to be in such a situation, but the world revolves you know! And what goes around comes around. What if the person peradventure sees him/herself in that position you wish and maybe went a step further to use his/her grace to do something good for you with all sincerity to show his/her remorse? Won't you still forgive? Then you are heaping red hot coal on your skinned head. Refusal to forgive shows weakness. An adage would say "The weak can never forgive; forgiveness is the attribute of the strong". This means you are not strong enough to overcome such pain/grieve and move on. You may be so deceived by your emotions to feel if you do not do something back, you would be seen as weak. That's a lie! On the contrary, your ability to let go despite the magnitude of hurt shows your strength and in fact in some situations, the heaping of red hot coal is now reversed. Not to forget that we are humans and we all make mistakes no matter how careful we tend to be. This means, we cannot avoid stepping on each other's toes in one way or another, directly or indirectly, knowingly or unknowingly. So, if we are to use the revenge rule-an eye for an eye, everyone will go blind. Would that be the best option? No level of hurt we experience is above forgiveness.
Consider this real life situation. If you carry grudges against an offender, how would your reactions be whenever you set eyes on that person? Your heart jumps up, your hormones become very active, a doubled or even tippled level of consciousness and your senses become so sharp and strong. Doing all these for someone who offended you? One of Lewis.B. Smedes' quotes states "To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you". You become so imprisoned to your offender, you seem not to like anything he/she does; when everyone compliments him/her, you look for a fault to say and always discover his/her imperfection easily. Burning so much energy for someone like this is unnecessary hard work and will definitely have a negative psychological impact on yourself. William Arthur quote states "Forgiveness is a gift, you give yourself". Forgive and free yourself from this bondage. It is even more terrible when you see your offender succeeding and prospering. Free yourself and come back to a normal Life.
Conclusively, when you do not forgive, nothing changes but if you do otherwise, a great impact would be felt and of course, you create a change. You exhibit Love when you forgive and a re-establishment of a good relationship is achieved. You never can tell where that relationship will take you to. You do not know how such relationship will benefit you. Above all, even if none of these happens, you will be free and be at liberty when you forgive. Forgiveness and Love go hand in hand. "There is no Love without forgiveness and there is no forgiveness without Love". Imagine a world driven by forgiveness. It will be a better place; much better than what we can ever imagine.