How Ancestral Trauma Lives in Your Body (And How to Heal It)

Have you ever caught yourself thinking or saying:

“I’ve done the work. So why do I still feel like something’s holding me back?”

Perhaps you’ve tried it all—journaling, therapy, meditations, mantras, or even retreats. You’ve done everything you can think of to work through your struggles. Yet, something still lingers:

• That invisible weight you can’t shake.

• Low-grade anxiety that never seems to fully fade.

• A persistent sense that you don’t feel completely safe, even when everything in your life appears fine on the surface.

If you’ve ever felt this way, there’s a possibility that this could be the missing piece no one has told you about:

You might be carrying pain that didn’t even start with you.

Your Body Remembers What Your Mind Doesn’t

There’s a groundbreaking study by Dr. Rachel Yehuda at Mount Sinai Hospital that completely changed how I viewed this issue. Dr. Yehuda discovered that the children of Holocaust survivors exhibited altered stress responses—even though they had never experienced the trauma themselves.

This means that our bodies can hold onto pain that didn’t originate from our personal experiences. It can be passed down through our ancestors. The emotional wounds, the trauma, the grief of those who came before us don’t just disappear. They can live on in our cells, tissues, and energy fields, influencing how we feel, respond, and behave—even if we’ve never directly experienced the event.

If you’ve been doing the emotional and spiritual work to heal, but still feel like something is off, it’s possible that the emotional residue of ancestral trauma is being carried in your body, blocking your ability to fully heal.

The Invisible Burden: Ancestral Trauma in the Body

Ancestral trauma, or generational trauma, is the emotional and psychological pain that’s passed down through family lines. It’s not something you may be aware of, yet it shapes your life in profound ways.

Here’s the thing: trauma isn’t just mental. It’s embodied. What your mind doesn’t remember, your body does. This is why, even after doing years of emotional work, you can still feel stuck, or feel like certain emotions or patterns continue to show up without explanation.

Ancestral trauma manifests in a variety of ways. You may find that you:

• Repeat unhealthy relationship patterns: Are you constantly drawn to toxic relationships or unable to break the cycle of dysfunctional dynamics?

• Struggle with low self-worth or self-sabotage: Do you find yourself getting in your own way, even when things are going well?

• Have a chronic sense of fear or anxiety that doesn’t make sense in your current life situation.

• Feel like you don’t belong or experience deep, unexplained grief or sadness.

This trauma is often deeply embedded in the nervous system, passed from generation to generation, affecting how we experience the world around us. The emotional and energetic imprint of these past events can live in your body’s cellular memory.

The Role of the Nervous System in Ancestral Trauma

When we experience trauma, our nervous system locks in the experience. It stores not only the emotional weight but also the physical sensations, the fear, the tension, the helplessness. The body holds onto these emotional memories as a survival mechanism, which means that even if the original trauma isn’t our own, it can still shape the way we feel, react, and behave.

For example, the children of Holocaust survivors had a heightened stress response because their bodies had absorbed the fear and survival instincts of their ancestors. Similarly, you may find that your body responds with anxiety, defensiveness, or even physical ailments that are connected to traumas you’ve never lived through personally.

How to Heal Ancestral Trauma Stored in the Body

Healing ancestral trauma requires more than just emotional processing—it involves releasing it from the body. If you’re still carrying the emotional pain of generations past, you need to reconnect with your body, acknowledge the trauma it holds, and release it in a way that allows you to move forward.

Here are some steps you can take to heal the ancestral trauma stored in your body:

1. Become Aware of Ancestral Patterns
   Begin by exploring your family history. Look at patterns of trauma that may have been passed down—whether that’s poverty, abandonment, addiction, violence, or loss. Understanding these inherited patterns can help you acknowledge the invisible burden that’s been passed to you. Reflect on what you might be carrying that isn’t yours.

2. Engage in Somatic Practices
   Your body holds the key to releasing inherited trauma. Practices like breathwork, yoga, somatic experiencing, and body scanning can help you reconnect with the body and release the energetic charge that has been stored within. Use these practices to create a safe space for your body to feel, release, and heal.

3. Use Rituals to Honour Your Ancestors
   Healing ancestral trauma often involves honouring your ancestors and acknowledging the pain they endured. You can do this through a ritual: light a candle for your ancestors, speak their names, and offer gratitude for their resilience. Ask for healing and guidance. This allows you to connect to their energy and release the hold their unresolved pain has on your life.

4. Focus on Releasing and Letting Go
   Use journaling or meditative visualization to imagine releasing the inherited trauma. See it leaving your body, dissipating into the universe, and dissolving. It’s important to consciously choose to release these patterns, so they no longer dictate your reality.

5. Seek Support from Energy Healers or Therapists
   Sometimes, releasing deeply held ancestral trauma requires support. Working with an energy healer, therapist, or someone skilled in ancestral healing (such as family constellations or Silent Counselling) can help you process and release the emotional and energetic patterns stored in your body.

The Power of Releasing Ancestral Trauma

Healing ancestral trauma isn’t just about addressing personal issues, it’s about freeing yourself from the weight of the past, releasing emotional burdens that don’t belong to you, and reclaiming your body’s natural state of peace, joy, and empowerment. By reconnecting with your body and consciously releasing the pain of your ancestors, you open the door to a new chapter in your life, one where you’re free to create, live, and thrive, unburdened by the traumas of the past.

Remember, your body is a powerful vessel, a place where healing and transformation can take place. As you release the trauma stored within, you allow your body to reclaim its innate wisdom, power, and freedom.