Every one of us may have been hurt by others—either by their words or actions. The best way to deal with the problem is to "forgive and forget".

"It is well established that learning to forgive others can have positive benefits for one's physical and mental health" Saima Noreen, a scientist at the University of St. Andrews, UK, told the Huffington Post.

Recently, Noreen and her research team have found one more reason that you should stick to this principle—forgiving somebody who has hurt you makes it easier for you to forget the unhappy memory, according to their new study.

In the study, researchers asked volunteers to read descriptions of 40 different situations that contained bad actions such as stealing, lying and cheating. Imagining being the victims (受害者), volunteers then had to decide whether they would be able to forgive. Two weeks later, volunteers took part in a memory test. In the test, they were shown a series of words related to the situations they had read about and then were asked to recall certain ones.

The results showed that people were less likely to remember the details of the unpleasant experiences if they had found forgiveness in their hearts. In contrast if they hadn't forgiven the mistake, they could always remember what had happened.

However, forgiving someone who has hurt you is always easier said than done. So Noreen hopes that one day in the near future research will give rise to powerful therapeutic (有疗效的) tools that will enable people to "forgive and forget" more effectively.