The body can carry several generations worth of trauma, but meditation can help people break these inherited patterns. Healer Resmaa Menakem helps people and communities do transformative work using meditation to heal historical and racialized trauma from systemic racism carried in the body and the soul. This can be considered heritage meditation. 

“All of this suggests that one of the best things each of us can do—not only for ourselves, but also for our children and grandchildren—is to metabolize our pain and heal our trauma,” he writes in his book My Grandmother’s Hands. “When we heal and make more room for growth in our nervous systems, we have a better chance of spreading our emotional health to our descendants, via healthy DNA expression. In contrast, when we don’t address our trauma, we may pass it on to future generations, along with some of our fear, constriction, and dirty pain.” 

Through his guided meditations, Resmaa teaches all people to recognize that pain and suffering are part of the stamina-building process and to how to use meditation and a deeper understanding of the body to grow. His approach teaches people how to heal the body in order to overcome suffering and find strength and resilience in one’s heritage. Resmaa’s courses for individuals and organizations are designed to work through the pain to find empowerment.

Let us know if you have ever practiced heritage meditation.