Hi, this is Dr. Valerie good to be with you again. Yesterday I shared with you a tool to repower your system in times of crisis when so much personal collective and generational trauma is being triggered, to actually use this time as an opportunity to condition your nervous system and bring it from the fight / flight / freeze response into the relaxation response, to support your immune system, your health, to support your ability to connect with your loved ones whether in person or virtually. And to support your ability to be in your discernment in your best decision-making mind, and also your connection with your intuition with your inner wisdom. If you’ve missed that video you can find it here.

And today, as I promised, I’m going to share with you a story. I’m going to share with you a storytelling pathway to repowering yourself in those times, tapping into deeper reservoirs treasure, coves of your power not only your personal power but the power that runs through your lineage. If you’ve followed my work for some time, you know that I talked about intergenerational transmission of trauma quite a bit. We know from epigenetics that traumatic experiences are genetically transmitted and so is trauma healing that resolves them.

So that’s the beauty of doing this work for ourselves. We’re also doing it for future generations. The flip side of the coin that I don’t talk about as often but I’m going to talk about today, is that experiences of resilience, overcoming hardship, amazing accomplishments, things that our ancestors have tapped into during times of crises they are also genetically transmitted. And so today I’m going to share with you a story from my lineage in the hopes that it will inspire you to relive and become aware of similar stories in yours.

I come from Russia. I was born and raised in Russia and I came to the US when I was 22 by myself. And I’ll circle back to that moment after I share with you the story from my grandparents. My grandparents were young, in their late teens during the time of World War II, and my grandfather was a squadron commander. He was a fighter pilot at age 19 when the war was already going on. He enlisted really young. The action took him to a different different towns, different places, and in one of those towns he met my grandmother. And the circumstances of their meeting, where my grandmother was attending a university, she was studying to be a doctor, and they met at the dance organized by the medical school, because most men were drafted, most men were fighting in the war, it was mostly women who were attending universities at this time.

This is an interesting interesting detail in terms of women’s empowerment and how history shaped that. In Russia, there’s also something to be said about my inheritance of that early women’s empowerment lineage or legacy. So my grandparents met at the dance. Even during the times of war, and in times of famine, times of danger and deprivation, life was still going on. People were meeting, people were falling in love. So when grandparents met and fell in love, and my grandmother faced this dilemma – should she stay at the University and complete her degree, or should she follow this handsome pilot who she was in love with? And at the time my grandmother – who was also in her late teens, she was around 19 I believe at the time – she was an orphan, she had lost both her parents.

So for advice she went to her girlfriends in the medical school. Should she stay in school or should she follow love? And of course her girlfriends said: “Are you out of your mind? Are you going to really stay and study for the exams when you have this wonderful opportunity. You are in love! Go.” And she went. She followed her heart. And they traveled all over as my grandfather fought in the war and they made it to Berlin. They participated in the liberation of Berlin. They ended the war there and they stayed and lived in Germany for a few years where my aunt was born, and then my mother was born on the border of Russia when they were traveling back.

My grandfather got homesick and he wanted to move back and every place they went they adopted the culture, the language, they made friends, they put down roots in new places and because they moved so many times and they didn’t have their family by their side, they were very self-sufficient. They were very resilient. They were very resourceful. They could make meals out of nothing and they had spectacular parties all the time. They valued their friendships. They valued these connections. And this is what I inherited from them. I inherited this ability to move from place to place, to different cultures and countries and languages. Make friends, put down roots. I inherited this courage and that resilience. I too can make a meal out of nothing and I value my friendships and my connections very much.

So the reason I’m sharing this story with you, is that people have been asking me, knowing that I moved to New York when I was 22, I came to the city by myself, and I fell in love with the city, I felt this calling that I should be here this is my place. And I applied for a job and I ended up staying and people go “Wow! How could you do that? That is so courageous.” And now that I look at my lineage, I know that I have inherited this amazing ability from my grandparents, as I have inherited so many other gifts. I have also followed love and uprooted my life. I have moved and started my life anew. And that amazing ability I also owe to them.

So today I’d like to inspire you. I hope the story inspires you to dig into your family lineage. What resilience, what gifts, have you inherited that your ancestors passed down to you? Hard-won wisdom, hard-won abilities that they’ve developed in times of crisis and hardship that you can now tap into. Because these gifts are yours. Perhaps you’ll be inspired to talk to other family members and reminisce together, and I would love to hear what stories live in your lineage and you’re living right now and what beautiful gifts you are tapping into and invoking for yourself and your loved ones, and how you’re sharing these gifts in the world.

Thank you so much for showing up this is my offering to support your gifts because the world needs our gifts even more than ever right now. Thank you so much for following your calling and I hope my offering supports you in delivering yours in the world. In the meanwhile, please stay healthy and well and I will be back tomorrow to share more tools with you on how to stay empowered and tap even into deeper layers of your power in these times when the world is going through a big shift.