WALKING ANCESTRAL MEDITATION: Try this healing exercise for adoptees and their loved ones

Just a few months ago I was in Sedona, Arizona, and booked a session of somatic healing therapy, a type of body-centred therapy, based on neurobiological research, that illuminates the connection between brain and body. Research has shown that there are twice as many nerves going from the body to the brain as from the brain to the body. What this means is that the body informs the brain. Indeed, the body keeps the score.

In addition to talk therapy, somatic healing therapy uses mind-body exercises and other physical techniques to boost a person’s physical and emotional well-being. For adoptees, somatic therapy uses the mind-body connection as an avenue to help us heal from adoption trauma. This therapy session in Sedona was a source of profound insight for me.

I was at a women’s retreat and had become intensely aware that I was being called to lead my biological ancestors to a collective healing. Healing is ancestral work. What we heal for ourselves, we heal for our entire family line—past, present and future. What isn’t healed is passed on to future generations. I had such a strong sensation, while in Sedona, of being frozen inside generational trauma. I was experiencing intense headaches and a shooting pain on my left side that travelled down from my neck and into the arch of my left foot.

The somatic therapy practitioner sat me down and moved me through a series of discovery questions as she led a conversation about my concerns. I explained that I was feeling a heaviness in my body and a sense of anxiety. I shared with her my story of adoption loss and the pain of those lingering feelings of banished biology and history.

At one point the therapist had me stand and envision my biological family—both paternal and maternal—standing in front of me, starting with my first parents and then moving back through the generations. The therapist first had me speak directly to my first parents. Through my tears, I told them that losing them through adoption had been a deep trauma. I added that I wasn’t wired for this kind of early disconnection—no one is! I was suffering in that moment and needed to find a way out of the pain.

I then envisioned my ancestral line moving back, from my first parents to my biological grandparents and beyond. In a long line, I envisioned them all standing before me. I forgave them for the trauma that had been passed on to me. I told them that I was so sorry that they had suffered, too. I asked them to release this trauma so that I could move forward in my life and assist the next generation to live free from the pain. I told them all that I loved them.

Then, when I was ready, I turned my back to my ancestors—not to ignore them but to lead them. I imagined a line of my people standing there with their hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them. I imagined my first parents with their hands on my shoulders.

The energy I felt was nothing short of miraculous. I cried as I experienced the ancestral love and support that was buoying me up from behind. I told those standing behind me that I was ready to lead them forward. I was ready to lead my life forward as well. It was a transformational moment that moved me from a place of suffering to a place of healing connection and light.

I left that somatic healing session headache-free and with no lingering pain on the left side of my body. I felt lighter and more at ease. I felt loved and more deeply connected to the biology of who I am. I felt folded back into my ancestral blanket. Just writing about that moment makes me smile.

I share this experience as an example of an alternative therapeutic technique that can support adoptees in freeing those places within that have felt banished for so long. I think it’s vital that, as adoptees, we stay open to alternative modalities of healing and that we choose for ourselves whatever methods—traditional, alternative or a combination of the two—that feel in alignment with what we need: mind, body and soul.

A walking ancestral healing meditation

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This reframing exercise will direct you to take a walk. I want you to dive into this exercise, call on your biological ancestors and lead them as you walk. I love to walk, and I’ve had some of my most profound and moving meditative moments and breakthroughs within walking meditation. Yes, you can meditate while you walk; just keep your beautiful eyes open!

The healing benefits of walking are tremendous as you bring body, mind and spirit in sync, whether you’re walking in a local park, in the city, on a remote hiking trail or inside your home—a mindfulness walk helps promote clearer thinking and self-connection. I believe it greatly supports you along the path of healing.

In fact, many of my coaching clients have taken to walking, anywhere from 10 to 60 minutes a day, in order to relieve stress and connect to their thoughts, feelings and creative places within. I’m a big believer in walking at least 10,000 steps a day for overall health. You don’t have to start with that, but it can certainly be a goal.

This specific walking ancestral meditation will help you reset the programming that suggests that we, as adoptees, can’t access our own miraculous biology. Walking and envisioning your ancestors with you can help you reconnect to those places within yourself—those parts of your biology that have felt banished and pushed away.

While this is called a walking ancestral meditation, you can also experience this meditation with any movement that is available to you. If you have a physical disability or if you can’t leave home at this time, you can still close your eyes and visualize yourself walking and calling on your ancestors to join you.

This walking meditation can take as long as you’d like, but I do suggest a 10- to 20-minute walk, as a minimum, as you begin this practice. My walks are normally 30 minutes, sometimes 45 minutes, two to four times a day—and you can build up to this time if you choose. I often find that I don’t want to stop my walking ancestral meditation because it’s such an enriching and rewarding experience.

During your walking meditation, you can play your favourite soothing music, or you can choose simply to listen to the sounds of nature around you. If the weather outside isn’t agreeable, you can walk indoors. You can use a treadmill; just make sure that you create a soothing setting that helps support your sense of peace and comfort. If you haven’t taken part in a walking meditation before, that’s OK. I ask you to stay open, lean into the moment, and play.

As you begin your walk, notice what is around you. Let your five senses guide you. Let any thought go that doesn’t connect you to presence. Breathe in what feels good. Breathe out what doesn’t. Receive on the inhale, release on the exhale. Clear the way for a deep encounter.

Keep walking at a pace that feels comfortable and comforting. This isn’t a race that needs your competitive edge. I want you to soften, open and experience your feelings as you walk. Now call on your ancestors to join you. If you know any of their names, say those names out loud or quietly to yourself—whatever feels most natural to you.

You’ll often find me walking and speaking the names of Cecilia, Eva, Gwyneth, Julielma and more. These are the names of my ancestors that I’ve learned through my research. If you don’t have that kind of information, that’s OK, too. You can call on your ancestors in whatever way feels good and right to you. Names may even come to you as you’re walking. Consider these insights as a clue—be a super observer of the information that comes to you and through you.

Ask your ancestors to stay with you on your walk. You can say something like, “I take this time to move my body. I call on my ancestors to walk with me. I’m followed and surrounded by the generations that have come before me.” As you walk, notice the sensations in your body. Feel the energy of your ancestors as you move. Feel those parts within you that once felt banished start to come alive.

This is an opportunity to reconnect and reclaim. It’s also an occasion for noticing what I call points of grace along the way—little signs like a butterfly, a beautiful flower standing alone or clouds floating by in the shape of something you love.

How might these points of grace be connecting you more deeply to those who came before you? How might they be signalling to you that you’re guided and loved? Continue to be super observant within this walking meditation, and allow the points of grace along the way to awaken you to new parts of you that are influenced by your miraculous ancestral line.

See if you can identify what aspects of your biology have felt most exiled. Allow all the feelings coming up for you as you walk. It’s safe to feel these things. It’s also safe to speak these things. As I did in my somatic healing therapy session, feel free to speak to the energy of your ancestors. Ask them to help you release whatever is holding you back. Ask them to renew and reignite within you the biology that has been passed down through the generations. Let those places come alive! With every step you take, free up those places.

Again, keep walking and communicating with those who have come before you, either out loud or in silent imaginative contemplation. Make this walking ancestral meditation your own. Allow the exiled places to step forward. Confide in those places. What has the exiling of these parts of you felt like? What does it feel like to begin reigniting those parts of who you are? Keep talking. Keep walking. Keep breathing. Keep feeling. Continue conversing with your ancestors as you move.

When you’re through with your walking ancestral meditation, try journaling or dictating on your phone any thoughts, sensations or messages that came through to you. I urge you to make this walking meditation a weekly, if not daily, practice. I want you to get in the habit of feeling that you’re guided and supported by a loving ancestral line. The truth is, you are!

It’s amazing that we have DNA testing and other ways of researching our biology and history as adoptees. We also possess a wealth of information within us that has been passed down through the generations. I’ve been practicing this walking ancestral meditation for quite some time. When I walk, I call on my ancestors to walk with me, to speak to me and to speak through me.

This practice of walking ancestral meditation has reminded me of my deep connection to my biology and to my ancestral story. It’s all within me. It’s all within you. I hope you’ll practice this simple and gentle meditation as often as you need. Happy walking!

images: Depositphotos