In a movie that I saw recently, a girl tells her therapist about her parents neglecting her during the first few years of her childhood. The sense of abandonment that it created has made it difficult for her to talk to her parents normally ever since. The therapist then asks her to move them down from the position of parents to that of human beings and think about it again. 

I have experienced the power of this manner of thinking myself. Often, we put people, who have come to matter a lot to us, up on a pedestal. And when they do something that hurts us or affects our opinion of them adversely, we begin to develop negative emotions – anger, hatred, self-doubt, bitterness. 

But if we were to think of them as just human beings who can also make mistakes, atleast some of our sour relationships can be salvaged. This does not mean justifying what they did. Sometimes, you might still not think that their actions are worthy of forgiveness. After all, they have occupied that position in our mind and heart because of their characteristics and actions. And anything that tarnishes that image will affect us in some way. But lowering people from a pedestal and looking at them as just humans may atleast save us some heart break.