We have a connection with the past that intrigues us, makes us want to know more and sometimes has us looking back there for answers...
It is like the book you don't want to put down because you want to know what happened. It's almost like you know the ending but you want to go back further because you know there is more to the story. More importantly though, this is our family, it is not a lesson in a history book and that make us want to know even more.
Our story is alive and woven and while there is a lot of importance on collective historical backdrop that our ancestors came through, the true understanding and the healing comes from knowing more about their personal traumas and triumphs no matter what the circumstance. It is there that the healing can begin.
It can be challenging because families have secrets and even if it's not truly a secret, it is events that are glossed over, not talked about. There are generations that believe it is better to look forward and not know the truth about the past. What that can leads to, as science of epigenetics is now telling us, is that trauma responses are passed down to the next generation. We carry the emotional feelings and often the trauma response behaviors that have been passed down and not understanding why.
How do we begin to heal? Whether it is trauma from war, or famine or difficult issues like mental health or addiction, the true story is better to know and understand. Genealogy helps you uncovers those difficult stories, and then the Ancestral Healing process can begin no matter how challenging it to hear. When we know and understand the lives our ancestor led and the trauma or wounds that were passed down we can begin to place them in the past where they belong. We can honor the difficult times they endured and by doing so we can become the healing generation. It is not ours to hold and keep but to accept, heal, release and move forward so it is not passed to the next generation. That is the Gift.
As a society we have begun to talk about some of the bigger Ancestral Healings that need to be done and that is important, but as individual families, there is a need to recognize that the wounds are there and that they continue to cause anxiety, pain and suffering until they are released.
Let the stories be told. Ask about them, share them and talk about not only the difficult times but what we can learn from those stories.
It is then that we can truly start to honor and appreciate all of the Triumphs! that have come down as well! We have many, many branches to our tree and every family has wonderful stories that fill us with hope and pride. It is in these stories that we can see the true connections we have with them. A young women recently discovered one of these connections as we researched her family. She was in the medical field and she said no one else in her family had any interest in that field until she discovered, her great great grandfather was a field doctor during the Civil War. Something she never knew but that absolutely made her feel that she her love of medical field came from him.
Ancestral Healing is truly a gift and as always, I would love to hear your thoughts or stories.
If you would like to know more about Ancestral Healing you can find more at my website.
Thanks for reading; we will talk again soon,
~Bernadette
Tell Me Our Story
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