From here to the horizon

Ancestors

                Epigenetics is now proving with Western science what ancient teachings have been proposing for centuries- that our ancestors’ experiences and interactions with their environments are locked into our cells,  in our very DNA. To be in harmony with the hopes and aspirations of our ancestors is to have good ancestral health. These are deep directives which have powerful influences on our lives, affecting our physical , emotional and spiritual health,. Usually we are not aware of these deep influences, but with World Metaphoric Transformation, we can become conscious of these directives and choose between the ones that will take us forward and release those that take us back to old ineffective patterns.    

    

                I have had headaches for the past three days. I develop headaches because when I am stressed, I clinched up my throat in an unconscious act of defense. After many hours, the closed circuit to my brain starts to register as a lack of blood to the brain, and then the body reacts as it should ‘Yipes the most important organ is being cut off from blood flow-send in more blood!” And then hormones and other regulatory pathways are stimulated and in flows the blood, but because the lack of blood isn’t due to a head injury or other mechanical reasons-suddenly there is too much blood flow and violá-all the symptoms of a migraine begin.

                The root of this problem from my own observations is fear. I make my throat  constricted and my energy becomes blocked. This is then reflected in my physiology as lack of blood flow. As soon as I realise what the connection is, I can release the tension and fear in my throat. However, this fear has become a kind of brine in which I’ve been pickeling for so long that the fear has become habitual and I don’t even notice what is happening in my throat. Its become ’natural’ to clinch up my throat when I talk to new people, present a new lecture, walk through a hall way I haven’t been in before…in fact I know that this brine of fear continues even when I fall asleep at night after a stressful day. I wake up around 3 a.m. with a migraine starting because I have fallen asleep with my throat clinched.

                While I was sitting in mediation focusing on my neck constriction this morning, I was also reminded of some events when I was a child. A few days ago we celebrated Father’s Day and so I reminded of something he used to do. He has passed on now and I believe that if he were a father now, he wouldn’t have done this. But I was raised in a time when children were reared to be ‘tough’ and my father, sensing that I was especially sensitive, tried very hard to make me ‘tough’. My father frequently punished me by ‘shaking some sense into me’. He would take my shoulders and shake me violently. I have a long neck and weak shoulders, so this punishment  was very frightening and each time I felt like I was going to die. Every time he’d look at me and say, “I’m going to shake some sense into you’. I tensed up my neck and throat in anticipation of a juddering that would give me whip lash and possibly mild concussion. So now, some fifty years later, I am still using the same defense mechanism to cope with stress. But through World Meatphoric Therapy., I have become aware of  this response. Now I have learned to become conscious of my throat response to stress and relax that area. 

                This has happening to someone for many years who is fairly aware of her body/mind connection! I wonder about individuals who do not have the same kind of awareness, don’t do physical practices such as yoga and dance, don’t meditate, don’t spend time every day journaling, in contemplation and creativity? How often have I sat opposite a client and could see where they hold tension, where they are imbalanced, wondered about their ancestral health but often they were utterly unable to bring their awareness to their own illness, their own dis-ease.

                From a life time of counselling, I believe the best way to identify  and clear hidden ancerstral influences is through World Metaphoric Therapy. This is because trying to change the self through talking is not effective. The ego is too well barricaded. Even when we are quite willing to change,  the defences which the ego built up are too habitual and fear keeps them firmly in place.

                World Metaphoric Therapy with the help of the environment, identifies the hidden ancestral directives which are preventing you from growing and becoming healthier.

                The final point I want to make here is that most psychotherapies are limited because they do not recognize the importance of ancestral health. Yet, we know now from epigenetics that experience changes our bodies and our DNA.  It is logical therefore that the unresolved traumas from past generations carry directives which are gut deep and feel ‘natural”...but they are not. They are shadows from the past which can be recognized and integrated so we can develop a healthier sense of who we are.

Try This-Ancestral Health

1.            This practice is especially powerful at the death anniversary of a loved one, or an anniversary of great importance of your family, in the autumn which is the traditional time of honouring ancestors. Go out into a favorite natural place. Bring to mind one ancestor whom you have been thinking about lately. This may be someone you have been dreaming about, or simply they have come into your mind lately. Or something recently reminded you of them. Notice what the world gives you as a soul message E.g. Today I noticed the small wind mill which my Dad ordered through a catalogue and which I set up in my own garden when he passed on.

2.            Now become aware of one memory connected with the world message that lets you really brings that person closer to you, even if they have passed on. Be specific about what you notice about this message. E.g. I noticed how consistent it is, how it moves incessantly in the wind, how I can watch it and become mesmerized. I look at it often when I go into my garden. Sometimes even from my balcony I look to see what direction the wind is blowing it and how strong by how fast it spins.

3.            When you have a good sensate feeling of the message, then follow back to its soul message. E.g. This wind mill reminds me that my father and his family, although my mother minimized their influence on me, actually do have a great influence on who I am. They were farmers and worked very hard, they escaped the potato famine and came to this new world with great hopes and dreams, which I still hold in myself. They were strong people and survivors even when they were robbed of their lands and starved from their homes. The incessant movement of the windmill reminds me that they move within me with the same kind of assurance, strength and use of the environment for their power and direction.