Family Constellations

Learn how to hand back family baggage, inspired by “Family Constellations.”

Download 3 Family Constellations Guided Meditations click here.

Our family system does more than condition our minds and strongly shape our sense of reality; there are hidden burdens that we inherit from up to ten generations back. Many cultures believe in appeasing and healing from ancestral family baggage.

We carry known and unknown burdens from our family system. Anything from inner obstacles like shame and self-doubt to poor body image and financial struggles.

Did you know that you can carry known and unknown burdens from even ten generations past?

We can carry unhealed traumas, longings, fears, guilt and even life obstacles from our bloodlines.

Dr Pam Roux, my colleague and friend and I spent two years writing a book called “Bloodlines and Baggage” as an easy-to-read guide to family constellations work, inspired by the transgenerational healing Family Constellation work of Bert Hellinger.

This work is about realizing that the field of life (sometimes called morphic fields, coined by Rupert Sheldrake) strongly impacts our personal growth, spiritual growth, healing and life experiences.

To raise the functioning of our family system and transform the blueprint of the inner family system as it lives in us to higher levels of peace, love and support, we need often to correct the family structure.

“What has family constellations and burdens got to do with enlightened wisdom?”

When others’ emotions and energy burden the body and mind, it is difficult to rest attention on and in the true self. Think of the burdens and baggage of the family as magnets pulling at and fixing attention.

To realize the true non-dual self, attention needs to be free to rest on and as the self, as pure open awareness.

When attention is endlessly hijacked by an unsettled mind and heart, it can make it difficult to tune in to the true self.

There is a natural, intuitive flow to our lives, yet many are not free to move in this natural, spontaneous way.

The forces that push and pull at life that influence the body and mind to take action include forces from the family constellation system (together with its past).

• Simon wants to express his musical talent but is burdened by a compulsion to escape life, even thinking about suicide. Simon discovers that his uncle committed suicide. When Simon hands back the burdens of his uncle, he is finally free to follow his natural life flow towards developing his musical talent.
• Liza wants to speak up in conversations but feels anxiety at every opportunity to voice her opinions. Liza discovers that her mother was abused and beaten for speaking up. Liza gives back her mother’s burdens by meditating and doing inner work to be free. After some time, with conscious effort and intentional contemplation, Liza finds her voice is free of anxiety.

How do we give back our family burdens?

Firstly, realize that this is inner work. Even in traditional Family Constellations, the transformation happens within our hearts, minds and somatic body sense.

Family Constellations involves gathering a group in a space where the facilitator (usually a psychologist or practitioner trained in the family constellation methodology) guides the transformational work.

In turn, participants have a chance to work on their family system. They choose members from the group to ‘represent’ their family members, including themselves then place them intuitively in the space and sit with the practitioner to observe.

The practitioner guides the group, looking for opportunities to shift the system towards healing, working on belonging, placement, handing back burdens and opening to the gifts of the system.

There is no need to bring our actual family members to family constellations because the field makes it possible to shift and hand back generational burdens. This work is done in the body, mind and heart. That’s where our family system lives.

The imprint of the consciousness of the family exists inside each of us, so this work is powerful inner work.

Many times the inner transformations cause transformations in the family system itself.

This can seem miraculous.

What we are essentially doing in family constellations, is bringing truth to replace confusion and ignorance. Unconscious confusion and blinding ignorance can be shared in family systems, and broader human groups extending to humanity as a whole.

Ignorance breeds dysfunction and suffering.

Each soul can only carry its own destiny and burdens. Just like a cloud doesn’t try to take on the burdens of the mountain, and the buck doesn’t take the burdens of a lion, everything in nature carries its own burdens.

But the unenlightened human mind and heart try to carry others’ burdens, destinies and purpose, creating dysfunction. Like a child trying to be the emotional parent to a parent, this causes suffering. 

We attempt to work outside of nature, breaking the laws of life. Like a dislocated shoulder, being put back in its place, family constellations work to put the inner family structure back in place.

Here are some guided meditations for you to download or stream to help give back burdens to your family system, and do the inner work that leads to freedom.

FAMILY CONSTELLATION GUIDED MEDITATIONS

Download MP3 meditations for giving back burdens.

• Click the play button to stream the audio meditation, or click the download link then right click and “save as” to get the MP3 for your personal use.

Here is a link to download this family constellation guided meditation.

Here is a link to download this family constellation MOTHER guided meditation.

Here is a link to download this family constellation FATHER guided meditation.