There is a growing body of evidence in the field of epigenetics that is relevant to our day to day experiences. What the research is showing is that the emotive experiences of our parents and grandparents is passed on to us in our DNA. Trauma becomes incorporated into the DNA (as likely do other significant emotional patterns). Thus, we react to events or emotional encounters in ways that are not only rooted in our individual experiences but also in those of prior generations.
We see this in the inter generational trauma of the Canadian Aboriginal Residential School Survivors; in the children of the Holocaust and other major traumas in the world. It is also likely true for individual traumas.
Bruno and Alaya Chikley, in their wonderful work on Heart Centred Therapy, ask the question, what decision did your forebearer make when faced with the trauma and how has that been passed to you? This leads us to ask, through meditation, as we become increasingly aware of our reactions, what are we reacting to? What are we beginning to see peek out from our inter generational history? As we become aware of it, what decisions can we make? Like the moon emerging through the plants in the photo above, when we are patient to see what is emerging, we can use the space of this patience to make decisions about how we will now react.
© Peter Choate, 2016
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