My exploration

When I first encountered the concept of ancestral healing, it struck a chord in me. I was called to explore this topic further, and the more I researched, the more I realised how much it resonated with my own experiences and circumstances. In this piece of writing, I've documented the main concepts and ideas surrounding ancestral healing as I worked through my own ancestral wounds. The results for me, personally, were profound, significantly contributing to my healing journey and helping me transform in meaningful ways.

What are ancestral or generational wounds?

In a sentence, it can defined as the cycle of trauma passed through generations of a family. Types of trauma is not limited to the extremes such as violence, oppression and abuse, but also includes negative emotional patterning, thoughts of lack and other patterns of dysfunction. This type of trauma can occur through environmental factors, social influences, psychological and biological context.

The science

Epigenetics investigates how our environment influences our genes and alters our DNA sequence, informing which genes are to be activated or deactivated. Research shows that experiencing emotional trauma or significant stress can cause chemical changes to a person’s chromosomes. These changes will then be inherited by future generations, making the descendants more sensitive to similar stressors.

This concept was tested in an experiment, and the results were intriguing. Researchers electrocuted a group of male mice, while at the same time, exposing them to the smell of cherry blossom. So by association, the mice developed anxious and fear-based behaviours around the cherry blossom scent. Taking these traumatised male mice sperm, they inseminated female mice. Their offspring then showed the same anxious and fearful behaviours to the cherry blossom smell without even being electrocuted. Even some of the grandchildren mice exhibited these behaviours.

The cycle breaker

There are those of us who have the ability to feel all the pain from our entire lineage. When you are undergoing a healing journey but still sensing unresolved energies or patterns that don't belong to you, you often come to realise that these are the inherited patterns passed down through your family line.

When our ancestors choose to numb and dull down their emotional pain, this gets passed down the bloodline. The awakening process is when the cycle breakers feel all the pain and are aware of the negative patterns that surround them – those of us that recognise this and do the inner work to shift that. It might be a lonely journey. Especially since we tend to veer off the ‘traditional’ pathway mapped out for us by family. We're thought of as the black sheep of the family and we tend to feel more than others.

But we are the types of people who carry the power to heal our family generational lines.

The motivation

If you see yourself as a cycle breaker and sometimes feel alone on your path, please remember that you’re not as alone as you think. The support you wish you had isn’t a requirement for your journey, because if you had had that support, you might never even have felt called to break these cycles at all. It's the challenges we confront and live through that transform and shift our energy.

You’re on this path because you have a unique awareness and sensitivity – gifts that allow you to lead the way not just for yourself, but for future generations too. You have a special strength within you and the power to create real change. Trust that you’re exactly where you need to be, and that your journey matters more than you know.

What is the cycle breaker’s role in all this?

If the cycle of trauma is passed down in our DNA / genes, ie. at a cellular level, by healing our own trauma, we automatically heal the lineage of trauma in our ancestry. We are here to break these binds and live our most authentic self. We have the opportunity, in this age of ascension into which we’re born, to be aware of and to do what our ancestors didn’t do. If we make peace with our shadows and stop feeding the negative emotions that guide us in the everyday such as fear, lack and anger, we can accelerate the healing process. Feed the high vibrational energies of love, light, creation, abundance, truth and follow the passions that guide us. By doing so, we not only help our ascension into the 5D, but we also set our future generations with the genetic codes to allow them to live high vibrational lives.

Where do we start?

Our souls continue to attract the wounds that need to be healed. Whether or not these are from the generational line is immaterial. When we start to look to deeply into the source and ruminate, we get sidetracked into the blame game, which doesn’t help the cause. Remember that wounds we blame on our parents are wounds they themselves have picked up from their parents and so on. We’re living in a time when more people are waking up, thanks in part to the internet and social media. We have access to the tools, knowledge, inspiration that generations before us didn’t.

The best way we can show our ancestors gratitude is by working on ourselves to heal, thereby breaking the patterns that bound them and us. Being thankful for our lineage and ancestors passed on, we acknowledge the struggles they overcame and their carried burdens, and how they paved the way for our future generations. And while it’s true that the challenges we face might not be our fault, we do have a responsibility to rise to the occasion not just for ourselves, but for those who will come after us.

Last but not least, take time to notice the emotions and patterns you want to let go of and gently work through them. As you do, remember to fill your days with love and surround yourself with activities that spark your passion and bring you joy. This will keep your vibration high and your spirit shining bright.

Prayer to our ancestors

It is important to recognise and give compassion and gratitude to our ancestors who lived, loved and endured so that we could be here today. Here is a power prayer of gratitude to honour their resilience and legacy:

“I’m grateful to you, my ancestors, who walked before me. I am grateful for the knowledge you gained, the wisdom you protected and the guidance you continue to offer.”

Meditation

A simple and effective way to transcend the ties that bind us is to do a meditative practice whenever you feel called to. I do this when I find myself thinking about the past, feeling the unshakable attachment to memories and thoughts that are holding me back from my daily life, that I feel the need to release in order to bring about peace and relieve my mind.

Stage 1 : Get into a relaxed state

Sit down, close your eyes. Take a deep breath in and out through your nostrils. Try to make the exhalation slightly longer than the inhalation. Do this as many times as required until you feel relaxed.

Stage 2: Connect to your roots

Imagine roots extending from your body and down into the earth, spreading out in the earth's core and anchoring you and your place on this planet.

Now visualise the field that expands out from your body. This field hold all of your memories and experiences, past and present, and the memories and patterning of your ancestors, those you knew and those far beyond memory.

Stage 3: Set the intention

Drop into your heart space and say this mentally with feeling. “I acknowledge any unresolved energies and inherited patterns held in my field and I now transmute and align to receive liberation and healing of unconditional, compassionate love, peace and balance for myself and my lineage across timelines and generations past, present and future."

Let this intention settle in your body like a seed in fertile soil. Remember your breath and trust that it has been done for the highest good of all, through all timelines.

Stage 4: Divine Universal Healing

Now see a luminous light above you. This Universal light pours down into you through your crown, filling your body fully and out through your roots. It also expands outwards from you and into your auric field. This is your light of protection and high vibrational energy that comes from Divine Universal Source. Feel good, bathing in this energy that is in and all around you, expanding far more than the eye can perceive. This is pure, intelligent, healing energy. Breathe this in fully.

Stage 5: Gratitude

Bring your awareness to your heart.

Feel the gratitude by saying, "I’m grateful to you, my ancestors, who walked before me. I am grateful for the knowledge you gained, the wisdom you protected and the guidance you continue to offer. I honour your journey and I heal with you. I now carry forward only what serves the highest good.”

Stay here for a few breaths and smile in the knowing that healing has taken place. Feel the positive blessings wrap around you and your lineage like a warm embrace.

Stage 6: Returning to awareness

Bring your awareness back to your body. Move your limbs slowly. Notice the room around you. Take a deep breath in and exhale fully through your nose. When you're ready, open your eyes.

Other meditative practices

There are many guided ancestral healing meditations online and other helpful methods to help in healing practices. EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) is a powerful and lesser heard about healing method that uses gentle tapping on specific meridian points - similar to acupressure - to help reset the body’s energy system and release emotional blocks.

A good one to try:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFW6ToQB-O0

Other, more popular techniques may include somatic (active) breathwork which engage in body-focused meditation to unlock and release energetic blockages stored in your DNA and body from ancestral and other traumas.

Ancestral Healing

Our wounds extend beyond the experiences of our lifetime. Ancestral healing allows us to uncover deeper layers of trauma that have been passed down through the generations and remain within our energy fields. These inherited imprints of suffering linger until we consciously acknowledge and begin the healing process not just for ourselves, but for the wellbeing of our future generations.

How does the trauma remain in our energy field?

On a cellular level, every single cell in our body emits its own energetic vibration. The condition of this vibration, whether high or low or blocked, is dependent on our emotional or mental state, and lingers in our energy field. In addition to this, any stress we’ve acquired from epigenetics that is in our DNA that’s unresolved, is also emitting a frequency tuned to that level.

If each cell is vibrating at a frequency, imagine the scale of collaboration of all these cells on the human body. The power of this energy is our electromagnetic field (aura) that surrounds our physical bodies, extending outwards to around 2.4 metres from the body.

Remember, you are a living bridge between the past and future. By healing yourself, you heal generations.