Ancestral healing and the importance of releasing one’s past to claim the future

“Why me?”

Have you ever caught yourself wondering this?

Perhaps you are out having a good time with your friends, at a movie or by the beach, and suddenly, out of nowhere, a feeling of guilt seeps in. You don’t know why, but something tells you that happiness is fleeting when it comes to you. Maybe it’s a deep sadness that you feel despite having a good life, a good job and everything that you need. Constant anxiety, fear of abandonment or a sense of guilt, even though nothing in your life can explain it.

Many people have noticed repeating patterns in their family, like financial struggles, broken relationships and chronic health issues that seem to pass on from one generation to the next. They keep thinking that these things run in the family and no matter how hard they try, they can’t escape these issues.

Many families whose ancestors have lived through wars, poverty, colonisation, forced migration, loss and betrayals have reported feeling this way. In many cultures, older generations have even experienced trauma from historical events like slavery, partition and genocide. Issues like abandonment, abuse, addiction or shame are also known to ripple down through generations, especially when they remain as unhealed or unresolved issues.

When trauma happens and isn’t processed, it often gets buried. This unhealed pain can then unconsciously get passed on to children and grandchildren through stories, beliefs and even silence.

Ancestral healing is a process of uncovering and releasing any such inherited emotional, psychological and spiritual wounds that may have been passed down through one’s family line. These wounds are often unconscious, but they can affect one’s beliefs, behaviour, choices, relationships and even physical health. It’s almost like carrying an invisible backpack filled with past hurts, trauma and patterns that didn’t begin with the said person but were rather handed down to them.

“Ancestors are benevolent beings who love us. You are their legacy, and they want the best for their progeny. Their own evolution in the Otherworld depends upon the completion of unfinished business or making amends for unkind acts or deeds that they may have committed during their lifetime,” says Steven D Farmer, the author of Healing Ancestral Karma: Free Yourself from Unhealthy Family Patterns. This quote beautifully captures the spirit of ancestral healing. Dr Steven Farmer is a psychotherapist, somatic therapist and author who has spent years exploring the connection between our psychological health and our ancestral roots. His work shows that the energy of our ancestors continues to live through us.

This is why it is important to face inherited wounds with awareness and intention. By doing so, we don’t just heal ourselves, we help liberate our ancestors too. So, join us as we explore what ancestral healing means and how it can help release one’s past and claim the future.

Become aware of the patterns

Our ancestors understood something powerful: that unresolved karma doesn’t simply vanish when someone passes. It stays in the family’s energetic field until someone is ready to transform it. And this is where ancestral healing helps people release emotional, mental and physical patterns that they may unknowingly be carrying through their family lineage. This includes inherited fears, limiting beliefs, guilt, shame, trauma and even repeating cycles of pain such as unhealthy relationships, financial struggles and illness.

By becoming aware of these patterns and consciously working to heal them, people can bring peace, not just to themselves, but to their previous and future generations as well.