Nearly everyone has been hurt by the actions or words of another. These wounds can leave you with lasting feelings of anger, bitterness and even vengeance — but if you don’t practice forgiveness, you may be the one who pays most dearly.

Although, for the most part, we’re right to keep our hurts to ourselves in professional settings where we’re vulnerable, the result is that many conflicts aren’t resolved. What’s more, work is an environment where we are required to be with people who aren’t necessarily like us and don’t always share our point of view, which is both wonderful and difficult. Inequities in power and money can make disputes more acrimonious.

While some grudges are the result of accumulated irritations, even a single incident can leave scars that never heal. The problem with grudges at work is that they’re a lose-lose proposition. They take your energy away from getting the job done and can hurt you not only emotionally but financially, by damaging your reputation.

People who were asked to imagine how they would like to get back at someone showed a higher heart rate and blood pressure—and increased sweating and muscle tension—than when they thought about forgiving. It’s wise to let little slights pass—not because you aren’t justified in being peeved but because these gripes should come with a warning: Dangerous to your health.

If, on the other hand, you have a serious grievance, you may need to go to human resources or even find a lawyer. The point is to address the problem rather than to stew.

For more entrenched grudges, I suggest a strange but useful tip. Force yourself to spend half an hour dwelling on what’s bugging you—say, from 7:30 to 8 each night. I tried it, and after a few nights I found myself saying, “I’m not going to waste any more time on this!”

Some relationships can’t be fixed and the best you can do is wait for the pain to subside. You can also try to understand your part in the conflict, so you can decrease the chances of ever carrying another painful grudge.