The sins of the father
The more life I live, the more I grasp the meaning of the title of this blog post. That stuff that keeps repeating consistently throughout our lives through relationships, whether romantic or otherwise, it could just be our own stuff. But what if most of it is shit that we inherited through our blood? And what if situations that cause us so much pain are just new situations that trigger old family wounds that have never been resolved? The Old Testament has a passage that reads, “The sins of the father…” are carried out for generations, by the young.
The inspiration for this blog post is a situation that first appeared for me several months ago that showed up in a curious way and caught me off guard. The details of what happened aren’t really important. Basically, a mildly irritating incident with someone left me reeling for a couple of days, surprisingly bringing up old feelings I thought I had outgrown. Annoyed with myself for being preoccupied with something that really didn’t matter, I just couldn’t seem to shake it.
I often find answers to my life’s conundrums by analyzing my dreams. I love to journal about my dreams during my morning train ride into work. Lately though, remembering my dreams has been less fruitful than usual and after this situation, for the first time in weeks, I ended up waking from a very weird dream. It made no sense out of context, but I knew it was entirely related to what was bothering me. The timing of this dream was the first telltale, and through analyzing the symbolism it offered up, I was able to put some of the pieces of my own personal puzzle together.
It was clear that the dream reflected back to me what was happening in my waking life. I could see that my subconscious mind was searching for some sort of satisfying ending. So by using the details of the dream, I created a hypnosis session and added an ending that brought a satisfying resolution. I made peace with the people who gave me this aberration through my DNA and the people I first created this dissatisfaction with in my youth and finally anyone else involved in frustrating scenarios that repeated over and over throughout my lifetime.
Interestingly enough, the following day, something happened that connected me back to the first person I created this frustration with decades ago. We ended up sharing a lovely and satisfying exchange. It took me a few days to recognize, but through an ongoing conversation, I ended up receiving what I had wanted from this relationship all along. Resolution in the subconscious dream work brought me a satisfying resolution in waking life. It was incredibly simple.
But the most fascinating thing for me is, I can’t help but feel as if all of this stuff that has been showing up in different guises, but repeatedly demanding my attention over my lifetime was almost forced upon me. Although, “forced” is too harsh a word. It honestly feels as if I was being directed down a deliberate path with an overwhelming urgency every time something happened that triggered this old wound. As if my ancestors have been requiring me to resolve a shared generational struggle, demanding that I find a way to set us all free.
It only took me over half a century to figure this out. I hope I have healed what needed healing. But from where I am today, I do feel like something major has shifted for me. And now I have questions around responsibility for transgressions. “Karma” is a word that keeps popping into my mind.
I have worked with dream symbolism as far back as I can recall, and I think it serves beautifully as a natural partner to my hypnosis work. I love how I keep evolving how I navigate the subconscious mind. But I won’t take full credit for the discovery. I know that I was guided to do this work, and I was most likely guided to merge my dream symbolism with hypnosis for my recent resolution.
We have all the power within us and I have terrific tools to access that power. If you’re interested in seeing how together we can help bring you some relief and resolution in your life, send me a message through my contact page. I’d love to help you tame your dragons and get them working with you instead of against you.