Your family: challenge and blessing!
In my work as a coach, I regularly consult children and adolescents with intolerances, extreme fatigue, exhaustion and the effects of prolonged stress.
Are these ailments only related to our unhealthy lifestyle and that of our children? Or is there more going on?
Do our children carry the burdens and joys of previous generations?
Years back, the latter was a nonsensical idea to me.
Meanwhile, I know that our family - and by that I mean previous generations - has a great impact on our current well-being.
Therefore, with Live The Connection, we teach children and grandchildren, mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers to deeply de-stress so that they learn to lift the ballast they have "in their backpacks" and are automatically imparting to their children and grandchildren.
Genetics and epigenetics: children carry on the ups and downs of the family
That there is information in our genes that is passed on from generation to generation has now become commonplace.
However, this "it's in the genes" has taken on the meaning, "Nothing can be done about that, tough luck.
Fortunately, this is not the whole truth.
That our genes rule our bodies and minds is now obsolete.
Ten years ago, cell biologist Bruce Lipton published his book "The Biology of Belief. Based on research, he showed that our genes respond to stored beliefs.
If you are the daughter or son from a family that considers itself more or just less than others, then these beliefs have been imparted into your system.
That "getting given along" becomes epigenetics called. Epigenetics are all inherited influences that are not imparted directly through your DNA, that is, through your genes, but through the information stored in the electromagnetically charged empty space in your cells.
At conception, a child receives epigenetic information in addition to genetic information. It is assumed that the information of some 7 generations is active in our present life.
Specifically, what does this mean?
Our brain is set up for best survival: we are alerted to danger
For example, if your ancestor was threatened in the war and heard them shout, "I'll find you," this threat can still create a sense of insecurity generations later. The fearful belief "They will find (and kill) me" can cause hyperalertness and fear for generations, day and night.
You would get tired of less...
Our brain is set up for survival. All life-threatening situations are stored in our fear center (amygdala) and passed on to our children so that they are warned and do not end up in the same life-threatening circumstances as us.
The way these "beware danger!" signs are transmitted is through literal words and sounds, colors and images, smells, tastes and sensations.
As soon as our children are triggered by similar sensory signals, they go into stress.
So stress is not only related to what is happening now. Stress is an accumulation of what has been passed down through generations via alarm signals. More on that in a moment.
Fortunately, our brain not only keeps track of all the dangers, it also records the solutions we found.
In his book "Trauma and Memory. How brain and body keep traumatic experiences alive' Peter Levine describes how someone survived a plane crash because she 'heard the voices of her father and grandfather telling her what to do'. Both had survived such an accident themselves.
We transfer our epigenetic adaptations to the next generation
Our ancestors not only give us their fears and solutions through, which we then in turn pass along to our children. We also pass on the adaptations in our brain by.
If your (grand)father or (grand)mother used a lot of sugar or alcohol, then in their brain the receptors for sugar are reduced. As a result, the next generation gets depleted faster when they use sugar or alcohol.
These children exhibit all sorts of "compensations" such as ADHD. In his book 'The endorphin recovery plan. Integrative epigenetics in practice‘, says Lucas Flamend How, since World War II, dietary adjustments have burdened our children both physically and mentally.
Our ancestors, without consciously knowing or wanting to, have saddled us with both physical and mental stress.
And now the good news.
Learning to get the stresses of now and previous generations out of your system
We can teach our children to clear their current fears, irritations and hyperalert systems.
We can learn to de-stress ourselves and then pass this simple method on to our (grand)children. We do that with "The ABC of de-stressing. You learn this in the 'De-stressing Workshop' which you can watch both online and live.
During the four-day Core Module learn to apply connection processes, showing that our (deviant) genes are modifiable.
During the subsequent two-day Family Theme Workshop, you will remove the accumulated and handed down family patterns from your family system. We know that our minds are hugely influential and that this influence continues for generations.
Live The Connection makes you experience firsthand that also recovery extends generations beyond.
If we reduce general and situational stress, then our healthy impulses take over. Our healthy impulses are on growth and development.
Burdensome impulses can be turned into healthy impulses. That's the good news. We are not victims of our ancestors, we co-create our own lives!
Marina Riemslagh, PhD
English 
Dutch
2 Comments
I would like to see my 21 year old daughter who has type 1 diabetes since she was 7 and was hospitalized twice before that age due to shortness of breath, live freely, enjoy and live her life, but she has always known anxiety and for years she has suffered from panic attacks. Now stopped her nursing course at college after she experienced stress with her internship at the hospital . She is often tense...also often does not dare to do things, wants as little as possible to have anything to do with the outside world....I really and sincerely do not know how I can help her to give her a normal full life full of love and freedom. Can you please advise us to stop this nightmare? Thank you very much, Fatima
Dear Fatima,
Can you give me an email address so I can email directly to you please?
My email address is Marina@livetheconnection.com
I do (not many) consultations in Bornem. Is that possible for you guys?
I'd love to hear it,
Warm regards,
Marina