Welcome to episode 2850 of the Daily Meditation Podcast.

I'm Mary Mechley, and I welcome you midweek through the theme we're exploring.

Every week we focus on a theme, and the theme this week is honoring your past.

So you've been guided reflecting on people who have come before you and influences from your past.

Well, it would be difficult to talk about your past without considering what experts refer to as transgenerational trauma.

And you might be wondering, what is this and do I have it?

Well, it's not as though we're flawed.

If we have this generational trauma, transgenerational trauma is the psychological and physiological effects that trauma experienced by people has on subsequent generations.

So for example, if you have a family member who was exposed to natural disasters or war, substance abuse, poverty, parental incarceration or divorce,

these are considered to be more extenuating life events, and they can cause people to carry with them patterns for managing emotional upset.

For example, symptoms such as hypervigilance or maybe a sense of mistrust or aloofness, anxiety, depression, panic attacks, nightmares, insomnia, and issues with self-esteem and confidence.

So how do you break the patterns of generational trauma?

Well, you are doing one of the best things you could possibly do for yourself as you create a meditation ritual and spend some time in stillness and reflection every day.

Healing happens when people speak up and work through the hurt, the pain, the abuse from the past.

Difficult emotional patterns from this transgenerational trauma can be broken when you create and establish new patterns and new ways of responding to stress.

So there's always hope and meditation, as I mentioned, is one of the best ways to do this because it helps to strengthen your prefrontal lobes, which is considered to be your command center of your brain that helps you to manage your response to stress.

So you still, of course, get stressed and experience all the full emotions of a human life, but you're better able to manage your emotional states, and you don't stay stuck in a cycle of stress, you're able to move on.

And that's what we practice every day here together, where you tune into your emotional state, and you begin to work with it.

You may not completely diminish it as you meditate, but you will notice that over time, you're able to manage difficult emotions better.

So I invite you to settle yourself down right this moment where you are, and to tune into how you're feeling today.

Notice your emotional state and name your emotions.

Notice what may have triggered certain emotions you're experiencing.

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