Heal Your Family-of-Origin Issues

"When problems... such as parental alcoholism, mental illness, child abuse, or extreme parental control interfere with family functioning, the effects on children can sometimes linger long after these children have grown up and left their problem families. Adults raised in dysfunctional families frequently report difficulties forming and maintaining intimate relationships, maintaining positive self-esteem, and trusting others; they fear a loss of control, and deny their feelings and reality" -- Group Psychotherapy with Adult Children of Alcoholics: Treatment Techniques and Countertransference, M. Vanicelli, 1989

Healing Life Lessons

This is the beginning of a more detailed look at healing life lessons. There are ten in all, and most people will have more than one. Hand analysis will identify them.

Life lessons are areas where we have been wounded, memories that never healed and limiting beliefs about ourselves, about life, about relationships, etc., that hold us back.

If unresolved family-of-origin issues are one of your life lessons, you are likely to have grown up in an abusive or dysfunctional family. And though you may have left home physically, you still struggle to "leave home" emotionally.

People with this challenge often sacrifice themselves constantly to the needs of family or community, losing themselves in the process. Or you might do the lone ranger routine at times, going it alone to avoid the family trap altogether, and end up feeling disconnected.

If the family gets in on the act, you wind up feeling like you've been left out of the loop or maybe even like the black sheep of the family.

Healing will help to create the ability to engage & connect without being controlled, without losing who you are in the process.

Here are journal questions for reflection...

Is this an issue that resonates for you?

List as many examples as you can think of that represent this life lesson in your life.

How might your life be different without family-of-origin issues?

Describe any stories from your past that might have ended differently if you hadn't had this challenge. Re-write them, giving them the ending you think they would have had, instead.

What are current examples from your life that are being affected by this life lesson? What would change if you could resolve or overcome this challenge?

Once you are aware of this issue in your life, the next step is to find the memories and beliefs that need to heal. They, then, become your target for healing and you can choose a healing technique or strategy that fits for you.

Energy healing techniques heal at the cellular level.

Setting an intention identifies the target and puts in an energetic request to group together the unhealed memories, beliefs and feelings and present them for healing. The healing techniques then remove the pain in each memory and heal the associated beliefs and feelings so that that memory is no longer destructive and thus, cannot hurt you anymore.