Sometimes we feel strong emotions that we cannot explain. There is deep sorrow, raging anger, burning fear, paralyzing powerlessness, insatiable longing, haunting unrest … Perhaps it has always been like this, or perhaps these feelings suddenly appear one day to stay, and so we feel that our lives start to increasingly slip away from us.
Family Constellations show that parents pass onto their children more than just mere genetic information. As it seems, all of us are born with a sort of emotional inheritance as well:
It is possible that I could unknowingly be connected with the fear of death experienced by my grandfather, who fought at the front as a soldier in World War II. Or with the despair felt by my grandmother, who lost her baby while fleeing from the enemy. Or with my aunt’s anger at her ex-husband, who walked out on her and their children to run away with a young lover.
I get to feel these feelings as if they were my own, not knowing that they belong to somebody else. And because these feelings are not related to my own experiences, I cannot find a way to explain them nor know where they come from. It is a state that can be confusing me and could make me wonder what is wrong with me.
Family constellation work can help us recognise these inherited feelings so that we can bring harmony back into the family structure.
