Why Yoga for Ancestral Healing

Healing Intergenerational Embodied Trauma

While Yoga Jubilee has been offering Yoga for Ancestral Healing since 2020, it’s still a new concept for most people. I’m proud to be part of the team developing this practice for healing embodied trauma throughout generations. There’s a lot to unpack here, so let’s start at the beginning.

Emotions lives in our bodies

We’ve all experienced how emotions feel in our bodies. Butterflies in our belly when something (or someone!) exciting is happening. Stiff neck and headaches when we’re stressed. Contraction in our bodies and holding our breath when we’re angry. Ordinary emotions may flow through our bodies without getting stuck. But when we are traumatized, the strong emotional reaction can stay in our body, causing dis-ease.

Emotions live in our bodies, like stress in a stiff neck

Trauma can be inherited

There’s also a growing body of work that shows us that trauma can be handed down from generation to generation, like beautiful eyes or a weak heart.

Adverse events or experiences can be passed down from one generation to the next, often in unspoken and deeply complex ways.

For example, a great grandmother who was placed in a concentration camp in Germany may have learned to cope by “cutting off” her emotions. Because of this, this grandmother may interact with her family in an emotionally distant fashion. She may also pass on physical effects of the trauma. African American descendants of enslaved people may inherit the trauma of enslavement: no control, split families, limited food, loss of voice, beatings, and rape. The intergenerational and unconscious grief from the historical trauma experienced by Indigenous peoples is passed from generation to generation due to forced relocation, land dispossession, and loss of spiritual practices, language and culture.

In my own family tree, I inherit the trauma of whatever caused my grandparents to leave their homelands to come to America. I inherit the pain and sorry of leaving behind family, language, food, and names to integrate into white America. I inherit the shame and hardness of ancestors who perpetrated violence in wartime. I inherit the grief of grandmothers who buried their children and the died young. I inherit the misery, distress, and fear of their orphaned children.

These traumas show up in psychological and physical disease.

If not addressed and identified accurately, depression, anxiety, PTSD, and substance use can be outward manifestations of the intergenerational trauma and unresolved historical grief.
~ American Psychiatric Association

All of us have hereditary issues in our tissues.

Talk therapy is not enough

Talk therapy and/or medication can be effective tools for healing the effects of intergenerational trauma. However, because these traumas live in our bodies, embodied practices need to be part of the healing plan. Yoga is a perfect embodied practice for helping heal intergenerational trauma.

Bessel van der Kolk, MD is a clinical psychiatrist whose work attempts to integrate mind, brain, body, and social connections to understand and treat trauma. He’s also the author of The Body Keeps the Score. He writes:

Our studies show that yoga is equally as beneficial—or more beneficial—than the best possible medications in alleviating traumatic stress symptoms.

We can offer healing to our ancestors

So far we’ve been very scientific in our discussion. It’s now time to have a leap of faith. Many of us have felt the presence of ancestors. I feel my mother’s presence and voice all the time. At certain times— especially when I intentionally tune in — I can feel and hear other ancestors.

I believe that we are more than our bodies and that our energy continues on after our body dies.

Daniel Foor, author of Ancestral Medicine, cites four key concepts that are essential to Ancestral Healing.

Consciousness continues after death

Not all the dead are equally well

The living and the dead can communicate

The living and the dead can strongly affect one another

“The living and dead can strongly affect one another.” Daniel Foor

If we are open to the idea that consciousness continues after death, we can begin our journey toward Ancestral Healing.

Experiences guide our practices

Research confirming the effectiveness of yoga for healing intergenerational trauma supports my own experiences. I’ve experienced the power of Ancestral Healing in many ways over the past several years. Yoga with guided visualizations have helped me connect to my matrilineal line to offer healing that has helped improve my own well-being. I’ve also participated in shamanic journeys that connected me to ancient, unnamed ancestors. I’ve felt their pain and offered my compassion and healing prayers.

In parallel, my friend and colleague Yoga Jubilee co-founder Nya Patrinos was developing Yoga for Ancestral Healing. Over the past year Nya and I have collaborated to deepen our understanding of the power of yoga for ancestral healing and how best to offer it.

What to expect in class

While themes will change, the overall structure of a Restorative Yoga for Ancestral Healing class is pretty consistent.

• We create safe space. We may call the directions or do other short practices to create a sacred and safe place for our work together. This often includes creating an altar, which can be as simple as a single candle.

• We share a short dharma talk. We may tell a story, read poetry or sacred texts, share experiences or music - all in context for the theme of the class.

• We center with our breath. We’ll do some breathwork to begin our embodied practice.

• We enjoy some gentle movement. This helps us get out of thinking mind and begins the process of entering a meditative state.

• We begin our supportive restorative practice. Restorative yoga poses are generally practiced lying down, supported by blankets, bolsters, blocks, and other props to help us really relax into the pose. Wear comfy clothes and be ready for some relaxation.

• We connect with the Ancestors in the first pose. We may share reflections, readings, music, or visualizations to help us connect with our Ancestors.

• We marinate in the practice. We then settle into the relaxing practice or restorative yoga, which closes with Savasana.

• We close our circle. We’ll then say goodbye for now to our Ancestors and close our circle.

Why practice Restorative Yoga for Ancestral Healing

I practice Restorative Yoga for Ancestral Healing to heal my body through yoga, to help heal my ancestors for the benefit of me and all their descendants, including my daughter. I practice for healing.