Call it turning 40. Call it being tired of the perpetual hamster wheel of toxic productivity. Call it educating myself about the colonization of our country. Call it learning my ancestry (I am Scandinavian, Scottish, German and English-not at all what my parents predicted). Call it finding out about the ways that my ancestors were traumatized and caused trauma.
Whatever you call it; it has created a longing for something more than the Eurocentric techniques of healing and talk therapy. It has created a sense of connection to those that came before us and the world I hope to leave for those that come after us.
I plan to use this space to share with you the knowledge I have acquired about various ethnic and cultural backgrounds in the spirit of shared learning and understanding.
Scientists continue to confirm that some epigenetic modifications can be transmitted from generation to generation. (Read more) There are varying estimates for how many generations can be impacted by changes but I want to take a moment to put that in perspective.
Let’s say environmental changes can impact four generations (so 100 years).
These events have occurred in the last 100 years:
The Great Depression 1929-1939
Forced Mexican Repatriation 1930's
Nanjing Massacre 1937
World War II 1939-1945
Holocaust 1941-1945
The DSM removed homosexuality as a mental health diagnosis in 1973
The last recorded lynching of a black person was 1981
The last indigenous boarding school was not closed until 1983
Columbine High School Massacre 1999
Twin Towers Terrorist Attack 9/11/01
I don’t know about you but I cannot imagine how we are NOT impacted on a core and cellular level by events that transpire.
I invite you to consider the events your parents, grandparents and great grandparents lived through. How much do you know about their experiences? How did they handle the complexities of their emotions along side the necessity to “keep going”. How does that affect your sense of responsibility? What message did you get about rest? How were the emotional wounds addressed or healed?
According to Great Law of the Haudenosaunee (The Constitution of the Iroquois Nation):
“..Look and listen for the welfare of the whole people and have always in view not only the present but also the coming generations, even those whose faces are yet beneath the surface of the ground — the unborn of the future Nation.”
We must heal for ourselves and for the generations that come after us.
With gratitude,
Sarah
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