Resentment
The human emotion of resentment is a quietly stressful, unexpressed version of anger, bitterness, and disappointment. It stems from feeling unfairly treated, dismissed, ignored, rejected, or betrayed. Resentment causes a mental reliving of an original offense repeatedly without a suitable or beneficial outcome, and is one of the core human emotions that can immediately and permanently dissolve inner peace.
Unregulated
Whereas anger is a bursting out of unregulated emotional energy, resentment is a quietly persistent and disturbing emotion that smolders inside. Those who live in a state of unregulated resentment assume that by holding it back without discourse and resolution it does not exist. However, stuffing that escalating and intensifying emotion will eventually explode out in a fit of unexpected rage, or implode causing physical symptoms like habitual stress, sleep disturbance, chronic joint pain, digestive problems, weakened immune function, and isolation. The self-sabotaging emotion of resentment usually remains dormant until someone treats us thoughtlessly, carelessly, unreasonably, and unconscionably - then all hell breaks loose. Until then we convince ourselves it’s okay to harbor resentment because it is better than taking the risk of entering a dreaded conversation that might invoke some kind of loss. This is pretentious, and dangerous to any relationship.
Harbor
Sometimes the resentment we harbor inside isn’t really about a specific situation. It could be about the version of us that so willingly volunteers giving up our time, skills, and generosity to those who are unappreciative and undeserving. Moreover, resentment isn’t always about the other person, rather our own unwillingness to look inward to determine if the resentment we feel is helpful or harmful to the lives we want to live.
“Resentment is a bitter and begrudging prison that only we have the key to unlock. ”