Module 1
Introduction
Module 2
Awareness and Appreciation
Module 3
Nostalgia and Narrative
Module 4
Connection
Module 5
Emotional Confidence and Resilience
Module 6
Social Belonging
Module 7
Trauma
Module 8
Opportunity (for Intergenerational Collaboration)
Module 9
Reparation and Reconciliation
Module 1:
We start the session off by developing our understanding of heritage and ancestors. By defining these terms broadly, we leave space for the complicated networks of belonging that enliven the human condition.
Adopting the acronym, ANCESTOR, we will explore
the ways in which being actively engaged in matters
of heritage and ancestry can enhance our well-being.
Module 2:
What do we need to be aware of when we think of those who came before? Using the concepts of the “hidden past” and “collective memory.” we delve into what it means to be aware and appreciative of our heritage and ancestry. Being connected to the past in this way is good for our sense of identity and gives us additional tools for handling the situations we find ourselves in today.
Module 3:
Is there a right way to remember? We examine the “emotional remembering” of nostalgia. Remembering in ways that reimagine our past or present allows us to construct healthy narratives of our heritage and ancestry to pass on to the future. Nostalgia can be a powerful tool for well-being, positive emotions, a sense of connectedness to others, and a sense of meaning and purpose. But using this remembering to craft new narratives is active and empowering. This new story is the one you want to pass on to the future: a story of hope, change, healing, and liberation.
Module 4:
Connection is the foundation of the entire course. We feel more connected to the past, the present, and the future when we engage in matters of heritage and ancestry. As we will see in the “Social Belonging” module, this feeling of belonging is extremely important for human thriving. But there is also a different type of connection that springs up from learning about and remembering our heritage and ancestry–a connection to a place and thing. We consider the tangible resources that we inherit from the past.
Module 5:
Research has found that thinking about our ancestors boosts emotional confidence. Although these findings are exploratory, it is supposed that connecting to our root system increases confidence and performance because we feel embedded in a bigger story.
Learning the history of our ancestors helps us gain a greater understanding of the challenges they faced, inspiring compassion for their faults, flaws, and blunders. But knowing about our ancestors’ lives also builds resilience; we can see patterns of overcoming failures and surviving difficult times. These stories serve to remind us that life is not always an easy path, inequalities exist, and disappointments occur, but we have the capacity to recover from these difficulties.
Module 6:
There are many different kinds of belonging. The first kind that comes to mind is the feeling of belonging in a community, or to geography. There is also a spiritual longing to belong to a set of ways or traditions, the longing to know and participate in ancestral knowledge. There are also subtler forms of belonging, like the one we must eventually create with our own story and the gifts that have been forged from it.
A sense of belonging and connectedness is a fundamental requirement to experience a meaningful and purposeful life.
Module 7:
Using Gabor Maté’s conception, we define trauma as a psychic wound with your ability to grow and develop. Trauma is the scarring that makes you less flexible, more rigid, less feeling, and more defensive.
When trauma happens, it changes us, sometimes for generations. Slavery, racism, genocide, and sexual violence are examples of intergenerational trauma that can affect multiple generations. Research has illustrated how intergenerational trauma is often expressed as unexplained anxiety, fears, phobias, and depression. Although still in its nascent stages, epigenetics suggests that our children and grandchildren are shaped by more than their genes, and trauma can also be inherited. In this module, we look to the field of epigenetics to find out how information is sent in our DNA across generations.
Module 8:
Our world is in need of both the experience and knowledge of our ancestors, including traditional or indigenous knowledge and the energy and social mindedness of today’s youth.
Research suggests that intergenerational connections are valuable to people of all ages (Patty & Nelson-Kakulla, 2018). Our relationship with younger and older generations is good for health, good for families, good for communities, and good for society.
Using the concept of “circular ecology,” we explore our role in the chain of ancestry, always remembering that we are part of a circle, not the top of a pyramid.
Module 9:
In this module, we consider four strategies for transgenerational healing. Transgenerational healing is easier to enact when we look forward. Our stories will inevitably become the stories of future generations. But future generations will have their own stories to tell, and we want them to have the freedom to do so without being weighed down by unresolved issues in our stories.
“Live as though all your ancestors were living again through you,” said the ancient Greeks. This didn’t mean literally re-enacting their lives; it meant giving them a new life, fresh and clean.
The content of the Ancestry course is designed for use by Neuro Change Practitioners with clients. The content is structured to be used in a full-day training session:
A truncated version could be used for a half-day training session. To support this use case, the Practitioner gets the following resources:
To support the client in making the most of the full-day session, the following resources are provided:
Earlier, we mentioned that you can choose your own adventure and that the fees to fully engage with us at the Neuro Change Institute would be affordable. Please see below for pricing information on additional electives once you’ve enrolled to attend the Neuro Change Practitioner course.
