What Is Resentment? Resentment describes a negative emotional reaction to being mistreated. There is no one cause of resentment, but most cases involve an underlying sense of being mistreated or wronged by another person. Experiencing frustration and disappointment is a normal part of life.
Resentment is not a pure emotion, but rather a particular manifestation of anger. Broadly speaking, we feel anger when our expectations are violated or when our boundaries are crossed. In the case of resentment, we have expectations regarding things we deserve to get from the world.
Signs of Resentment
Continual or recurring feelings of a strong emotion, such as anger, when thinking about a specific interaction or experience. Inability to stop thinking about the event that triggered the strong emotions. Feelings of regret. Fear or avoidance of conflict.
Resentment (also called ranklement or bitterness) is a complex, multilayered emotion that has been described as a mixture of disappointment, disgust and anger. Other psychologists consider it a mood or as a secondary emotion (including cognitive elements) that can be elicited in the face of insult and/or injury.
Emotions of anger and resentment are often held in our jaw and around the mouth. If you often have a sore throat, mouth ulcers or grind your teeth at night, it could be a sign that there is an excess of overactive or stagnant energy in this part of your body.
03/6Anger - Liver
The emotion of anger is associated with the choleric humor and can cause resentment and irritability. It is believed that this emotion is stored in the liver and gall bladder, which contain bile. Anger can cause headaches and hypertension which can in turn affect the stomach and the spleen.
Resentment is the feeling that something wrong was done to you. If you feel like there's an injustice in the world it can easily leave you feeling resentful. Resentment feels like a natural response to being hurt by someone.
Bitterness and resentment relate to anger. When we let anger at others or frustration at our situation fester and build up in our hearts, we can begin to develop bitterness and resentment. Often bitterness takes root when we are hurt by others or we think a situation we are put in is unjust or unfair.
The Toxic Reigns of Resentment centers on the idea that a resentful person or group focuses on finding and punishing the culprit of their suffering. Instead of looking at policies or reflecting inward, resentment causes society to label and blame others, which turns into a permeant hatred.
Resentment is the feeling that you did not get your way in the past. These feelings are therefore based on selfishness (the need to get your wants fulfilled).
You begin to resent the other person and dwell on what they did to you. The injuries feel unforgivable, and the resentment turns into hate, like slowly hardening concrete. Your attitude toward the other person becomes rigid, and nothing they say or do makes a difference. Hate provides a perfect excuse to stay angry.
Resentment and anger in love relationships are unlike the variations of those emotions in other social contexts. Many people are resentful or angry only in love. Only those we love can remind us that we may be unlovable or inadequate as love partners.
Where anger (when directed at others) is an aggressive exertion of power to get someone to back off or submit to what you want (either in reality or in your imagination), resentment is a defensive way of mentally devaluing and retaliating against those whom you perceive to be acting unfairly.
There is no one cause of resentment, but most cases involve an underlying sense of being mistreated or wronged by another person. Experiencing frustration and disappointment is a normal part of life. When the feelings become too overwhelming, they can contribute to resentment.
Bitterness is rooted in unfair, disappointing, or painful experiences that would make any human feel hurt, angry, or sad. While most people are able to feel those emotions and then leave them behind, those who become bitter hold on, refusing to forgive the offenses (real or imagined) and miring themselves in misery.
Holding grudges can often mean holding anger and stress. A 2021 large-scale study analyzed the daily emotional responses of over 20,000 people and found that “intense high-arousal negative emotions” such as anger and stress were associated with higher blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) reactions.
Can a Marriage Recover From Resentment? Marriages can recover from resentment, but it takes time and consistent effort from both partners. It challenges partners to forgive one another for the behaviors that led to feelings of resentment and hurt. However, that isn't an easy task.
Yes, you can try. And yes, the only way you can know if what's probable can become possible is to name it as a problem and give it your very best effort. One thing you can know for sure is that if you don't try to address the resentment, it won't go away by itself.
Emotional information is stored through “packages” in our organs, tissues, skin, and muscles. These “packages” allow the emotional information to stay in our body parts until we can “release” it. Negative emotions in particular have a long-lasting effect on the body.