Jennifer Aniston Freed Herself From Darkness By Getting Rid Of 'Resentment' And 'Anger' Toward Her Mom

Nov 15, 2022 by apost team

Jennifer Aniston may be one of the most successful actresses of her generation, but she has also experienced her fair share of pain and suffering — but she chose to let go of it.

Aniston has found peace in her personal life over the years. She lives in a very “zen” filled home and has kept much of her private life out of the media aside from her previous relationships. On top of that, she has stayed on a successful career trajectory and has also remained friends with her exes.

Her father wanted her to become a lawyer or a doctor because he didn’t want her to get heartbroken if she didn’t make it in the acting world. But she knew she had to do it.

“It compelled me to go for it even harder. Do what keeps you happy, and don’t ever let people box you in,” she told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview back in 2012.

Aniston was previously married to Brad Pitt for five years before they decided to go their separate ways. In 2015, she got married again to Justin Theroux but they separated two years later in 2017.

Aniston has also learned how to heal old wounds, such as by overcoming a toxic relationship with her mother — the late actress Nancy Dow.

Back in 2007, Aniston sat down with Esquire where she talked about the best moments she had with her parents. She shared how her parents’ contagious laughs would give her the “most peaceful feeling in the world” — until their divorce came.

Aniston recalled how those moments slowly faded away. So, she tried to find healing by keeping herself busy with work.

“As the years passed, tension came between my mom and dad, and I'd do funny things to try to bring back the laughter,” she said. 

“It's hard to recall now what those things were. Maybe I've blocked them out. I guess I've learned to make a living doing what I did to try to heal myself as a kid,” she added.

Aniston candidly opened up about her personal life to her good friend and fellow actress Sandra Bullock for a story for the March 2020 issue of Interview magazine. When Bullock told Aniston she has a way of allowing people to feel safe whenever she is around them, Aniston explained that she didn’t want people to feel what she had felt while being raised in her own home.

“I think that it comes from growing up in a household that was destabilized and felt unsafe, watching adults being unkind to each other, and witnessing certain things about human behavior that made me think: ‘I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to be that. I don’t want to experience this feeling I’m having in my body right now. I don’t want anyone else that I ever come in contact with ever to feel that,’” she said.

Aniston admitted in an interview with Elle in 2018 that she likes having people around because she saw how her mom would have her friends come over to their family home and entertain them. 

“My house was always like the clubhouse. I love entertaining. I always have food. I think I probably got that from my mom, who always had her girlfriends over. I picked it up from my childhood — just always hearing girls in the house and learning how to make a good cheese board,” she said.

apost.com

In a December 2022 cover story for Allure, Aniston opened up about her broken relationship with her parents — including her dad John Aniston, and mom, Dow, from whom she had been estranged for a long time — and how she completely healed after she learned to forgive them.  

The actress reiterated that her mom was never the same after her parents went through their divorce.

“I think my mom’s divorce really screwed her up,” Aniston said.

Aniston acknowledged the fact seeking professional help was not as common then as it is today.

“Back in that generation it wasn’t like, ‘Go to therapy, talk to somebody. Why don’t you start microdosing?’ You’re going through life and picking up your child with tears on your face and you don’t have any help.”

Despite what she went had gone through, Aniston chose forgiveness at the end of the day.

“I forgave my mom,” she said. “I forgave my father. I’ve forgiven my family.”

For Aniston, letting go of her resentment and anger meant she would break free from living a toxic life.

“It’s important,” she said. “It’s toxic to have that resentment, that anger. I learned that by watching my mom never let go of it.”

Aniston then tried to explain what she meant about being in a dark place and finding reasons to be grateful for what her parents taught her from that experience.

“I remember saying, ‘Thank you for showing me what never to be.’ So that’s what I mean about taking the darker things that happen in our lives, the not-so-happy moments, and trying to find places to honor them because of what they have given to us,” she said.

What do you think about Jennifer Aniston’s journey toward self-healing? Let us know your thoughts and pass this on to anyone who might be interested to read this!