Ancestral trauma is internalized in our subconscious as it gets passed down through the generations. We often react when it gets triggered inside of us, but we don’t even know that we’re reacting, because it is so well-hidden in the psyche.
I encourage you to tread this topic with loads of self-compassion. As you bring some of your traumatized parts of into conscious awareness, remember to not judge them, but to have reverence and compassion for the ways in which they adapted to protect you and your ancestors.
We’re often carrying ancestral burdens that don’t belong to us – and they actually didn’t start with us.
As children, we come into this world innocent, as a blank slate, and then our minds start getting colored by the stories and comments that our parents, other family members, teachers, and peers make, as well as the dynamics we see depicted on television.
Around the age of 8, our generational imprints start becoming activated and enacted by us. These are the inherited patterns that get passed through nature and nurture – through DNA and observation – and we start living them, not quite understanding why they exist in the first place.
These can include things like white supremacy beliefs, shame around our own cultural identity, judgments and hatred projected toward other cultures and groups of people, inclination toward a westernized way of being, talking, and dressing.
All of this is the result of collective unconscious trauma.
There are many cultures that were historically oppressed by white people that still idolize western values today – this is evident in TV and magazine ads that portray western fashion, celebrities promoting skin lightening formulas, and an increased move toward keeping up with western trends at the expense of honoring and celebrating native traditions and native beauty.
Many of the powers that invaded ancient cultures intended to eradicate the wisdom contained in ancient ancestral practices. These invaders left many of these cultures bereft of their inherent identity and wealth ~ essentially compelling them to have to emigrate to western lands where they are still working for the oppressor, just under a different guise.
The aim of the oppressor was to create shame around identity – and they did a fantastic job with that – because we still see the echoes of these trauma-driven patterns in modern-day America.
The following is how ancestral trauma shows up today:
- Shame – hiding who you are, not feeling good enough. This can often show up as a pit in your stomach – which is the energy center of your power, identity, and confidence.
This can also show up as shaming or mocking your own people – i.e. putting down cultural practices or behaviors, or members of your own group.
2. Idolizing the oppressor – This entails unconsciously putting the oppressive group up on a pedestal and recreating the historical power imbalance between you and them. In everyday situations, this could mean discounting yourself and your credentials when faced by someone who resembles the oppressor archetype for you. It could also show up as silencing yourself or fawning, meaning going out of your way to appear agreeable to members of the oppressor group.
This is ancestral trauma at its finest – historically, they silenced your ancestors to keep them under their control, and you carry that imprint with you in your cells, so you become mum when faced with the those who carry oppressive ancestral energies – especially if you’re energetically sensitive. So if you notice yourself not acting like your usual self and getting noticeably anxious around certain types of people – it may be because of the way that your ancestral energies are interacting with their ancestral energies.
It is a very real thing. We carry our ancestors inside of us wherever we go.
3. Anger and hatred – toward other groups of people. This can be very unconscious, as all ancestral trauma is. But historically, if there were fights and arguments between different groups of people, there are survival beliefs and behaviors that get internalized and passed on as a means of self-preservation. So if you’ve noticed older generations of family members having prejudices toward certain cultures, this is indicative of generational trauma.
As judgmental and unfair as they may sound, there’s a historical reason for why they don’t like those people – and there’s some healing that’s needed with the wounds that were created generations ago.
Similarly, prejudice can also show up in mocking and shaming behavior toward other groups of people. This is often internalized shame projected outward.
4. Pride and arrogance – in one’s own culture. This is the other end of the shame spectrum, and it can often be a defense mechanism to cover up internalized shame. It can also just be a sign of claiming one’s ancestral roots but taking it a bit too far as an unconscious way of balancing the historical suppression of ancestry that once took place.
5. Freezing – occurs when someone brings up a sensitive topic about culture, race, and identity or when you’re around people or groups of people who resemble the oppressor that still lives in your ancestral DNA as fear – and you freeze.
Your heart starts beating really fast, you may go weak in your legs, your nervous system kicks into sympathetic mode – it’s rushing blood to your vital organs – your body is heating up and you cannot open your mouth – you don’t know what to say -your brain and body are frozen. And you don’t know why.
This is because a trauma imprint that belongs to your ancestors is getting energetically activated in that environment, and your body does not feel safe.
It is going into victim mode, because deep in your cellular memory – you know what’s coming. You’re anticipating a judgment, a criticism, being put down, being made to look or feel bad about yourself – even though the circumstance you are in may not outwardly appear threatening to anyone else, it feels threatening to you, because of the ancestral trauma that you carry. In that moment, your ancestors are literally freezing inside your cells with you – because your nervous system is connected to theirs – and a similar energy in their time, would have meant harassment, chastising, or worse, abuse.
6. Fleeing – You change the topic, distract yourself and others, or make an excuse to leave.
Now, in some cases, leaving is absolutely the healthy response when confronted with an aggressive, harmful, disrespectful, or unhelpful situation. But if you’re leaving from a victimized place rather than an empowered place, then this is indicative of ancestral trauma.
These are some of the most common ways in which ancestral trauma shows up. And again, remember to be gentle with yourself. None of this information is meant for you to take and judge yourself on – the energies that you’re dealing with come from way beyond you – and you sincerely deserve loads of compassion for the mere fact that you’ve been carrying them for so long.
Awareness is always the first step to any healing.
If you want to dive deeper into understanding where these ancestral burdens come from specifically for you, given your ancestry, and actually work to clear them for yourself and your ancestors, then you are welcome to book a complimentary discovery call, where you will walk away with a better understanding of what you’ve been carrying, and we can chart a customized path forward for your ancestral healing journey.
