3 Reasons Why Honoring Your Ancestors Turns Grief into Love
When someone passes in our families, we are brought to a place of awareness for both life and death. We may ask ourselves what is the meaning of life and how we now deal with the death of a loved one. We have no choice but to reflect on our own life choices, and likely the life choices of the person who passed. This time of reflection may bring up a lot of painful emotions, particularly grief, despair, sorrow, pain, etc for yourself, the relationship you had with a loved one or even the relationship you didn’t have with them. You also may be taking on the pain from your ancestors, as you reflect on their life and what they had to endure. In specific ways, you could be inheriting their attitudes, mindsets, and ways of thinking which are affecting how you even see yourself.
According to Ed Federici, a marriage and family therapist, “there is an adage in family therapy that states what the grandparents have experienced, the children will feel, and the grandchildren will act out.” When we don’t reconcile these feelings, behaviors, or even beliefs, they simply get passed down to the next generation. They take on their own energy and that energy can be dense and heavy; causing us to act in ways that are not aligned with our true self and purpose.
In order to indeed release that dense energy, we must change how we perceive our relationship with our ancestors. Instead of coming from a place of heaviness and sadness, we must come from a place of love and gratitude. This can greatly improve our relationship with ourselves, and as a result, our relationship with our loved ones, and the rest of the world. The better we can connect and reconcile the difficulties in our lives and transform pain into love, the more we can share that love with the rest of the world.
Shifting this dynamic can allow us to let go of the limiting beliefs, shift our mindset, and let us be free of the low vibrational energy of the past, allowing higher vibrations of energy to come in.
#1 Mindset Shift
Honoring our ancestors can shift the dynamics in our relationships so that we have a chance to finally let go of limiting beliefs around that relationship and/or limiting beliefs that we have acquired from our ancestors, or about them. When we lose someone, we usually are plugged into painful memories or thoughts of the past. Doing a consistent practice of honoring our ancestors sheds light on more positive beliefs and opens up the door to healing.
When we honor or show gratitude, this shifts our thoughts about the relationship. We are coming from a more sincere mind rather than a mindset of sorrow. It also allows us to surrender to the present moment where we tend to be able to access a purer mind and an open heart. When we are plugged into the past, our mindset is clouded and we cannot open it up to more healing and love. The more you open your mind up for love and let go of negative thoughts, emotions, and sensations, the more you come home to yourself; the more you can share the love with the rest of the world.
#2 Energetic Shift
Honoring your ancestors will naturally shift your energy into a higher frequency. When we are so focused on sadness and loss, we tend to operate in low vibrations and we attract more of those feelings and thoughts towards us. We can even attract negative experiences or people who legitimize those negative thoughts as well.
Think about the laws of universal energy; one of them being that energy moves with one’s own intentions and focus. Therefore, by creating an intentional practice of honoring your ancestors through love and gratitude, you can swiftly move those low vibrational feelings of sadness to those of love and appreciation. It doesn’t mean you cannot experience sadness when thinking of the loss of your ancestor.
Still, by honoring your relationship with that person, you are intentionally choosing to focus and invoke positive energy towards that relationship. The more positive energy you have inside, the more you can connect to the positive energy in the Universe and share that throughout your own frequency.
#3 Consciousness Shift
When your energy shifts as a result of honoring your ancestors, your consciousness will naturally shift as well. Everything in our Universe is energy, including our consciousness. Shifting into higher levels of energy will naturally allow our consciousness to rise. We can finally open up to thoughts, feelings, and experiences of forgiveness and deep reflection.
Accessing higher levels of consciousness changes us to become the greatest versions of ourselves, and through that process, we can contribute to creating even better versions of the Universe. Higher levels of consciousness allow us to bring more awareness to who we are and how we can share the love with the rest of the world. We are open to uncovering more of our true selves and living a more blissful existence.
We are so deeply connected to our ancestors that it makes sense that we would be greatly affected by their patterns and habits and the relationships we have established with them. But as we learn to consistently honor that relationship and find gratitude where there may have been pain and hurt, we are able to change that relationship. And naturally, we are able to change our relationships with ourselves and subsequently with others.
