A brief touch on intergenerational trauma
Updated: Dec 27, 2020
My family escaped the Vietnam war on boats.
And from there, the journey was filled with heartache, numbing, violence, insurmountable loss, grief, and a complete unknowing if they would survive.
The journey was brutal. Yet somehow in that brutality, there is still this concept of duality — a balance of two opposing energies. Suffering but also seeds of hope.
The seeds that sprouted from the journey —strength, will, determination, support, love, passion, knowledge, steadfastness, faith, hope, restoration, resilience, trust, groundedness and so much more — tremendously outweighs what was lost.
Chances are your family was affected by war and they were survivors at one point, too.
Through inter-generational trauma, these feelings, emotions and traumas are encoded into our DNA.
This knowledge and embodied understanding of the deeper connection we have to our family history gives us the space to feel and, more importantly, to HEAL.
It is important to recognize that you have the ability to pass on your family’s strength, resilience and perseverance — and that you have the ability to heal from your inter-generational trauma so you don’t pass that on.
Therapy, self-help, and hell, even self-work are still stigmatized and mental illness runs rampant.
We need an environment with open space to speak about mental health and healing as a right as opposed to a luxury.
This openness and ability to share ones healing process will begin to foster an environment that holds healing paramount to suppression. And from this space, you can grow, expand, live, breathe and truly feel free and at peace.
I wish this for every human on earth.
If you feel that you need space for healing, including inter-generational trauma, please feel free to contact me or submit a Private Yoga Intake form. You are not alone in this.
Always with gratitude,
Allison
More material on inter-generational trauma:
The American Psychological Association | The legacy of trauma: An emerging line of research is exploring how historical and cultural traumas affect survivors’ children for generations to come - https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/02/legacy-trauma
Social Work Today | Intergenerational Trauma — Legacies of Loss by Sue Coyle, MSW - https://www.socialworktoday.com/archive/051214p18.shtml