36 Grudges So Bad, People Will Probably Never Let Them Go

A person experiences a variety of emotions throughout their life, as psychologist Jonice Webb lists in her article. This includes feelings like love, fear, sadness, joy, and boredom, to name a few. 

What’s interesting about emotions is that you don’t have to experience them one at a time. They can mix, creating mixed emotions, hence the name. Or they can create an entirely new feeling. 

For example, emotions such as anger, bitterness, and other negative ones can form a feeling called a grudge. According to the dictionary definition, a grudge is “a feeling of deep-seated resentment or ill will.” But as always, dictionary definitions tend to be pretty dry, don’t they? 

That’s when we turn to more “human” explanations. Essentially, yes, a grudge is a negative feeling that we experience, but it’s more than simply that. Basically, there’s always a context for why we feel this way, a story behind it. Feelings, especially the bad ones, don’t just appear for no reason.

If it seems like they do, it’s always worth looking deeper into it – it might be due to someone hurting you way back in the day and those feelings catching up right now. Or it might be some kind of mental illness, you never know. But hey, acknowledging it is always the first step in getting better.

What’s interesting about a grudge is that it can be pretty hard to let go of. After all, when we talk about it, we usually phrase it as “holding a grudge,” which suggests that we tend to hold onto this feeling. 

Today’s list is a perfect proof of that – it’s full of stories about exactly that. Mind you, some of these grudges are decades old. It just proves the point that it can be hard or even impossible to let go of. 

But why is it like that? You see, our brains are wired in a way that they like to hold onto negative feelings, even though it hurts us. And we motivate them to do so by ruminating, as this way they don’t turn into the thing of the past and remain present in our heads. 

Perhaps this way we’re trying to protect ourselves – if we remember the negative thing and details about it, we can ensure it doesn’t happen again, as we can avoid it. It gives us a sense of self-control, even if in some cases it’s just an illusion. 

Yet, many people argue that we should strive to be more forgiving. All these negative feelings hurt us. It not only damages our minds, but can bring bitterness, mistrust to relationships, and just makes us overall sadder than we should be. And that sounds nice and all, but sometimes it’s easier said than done, isn’t it? 

Do you have any grudges you've been holding for a long time? Please, share them with us!