What is healing? Why does it matter if we explore and do it as we research our family’s past, our military past, and look at our personal journeys?
To learn more about what I offer and how I can help you shift your life and heal your lineage, visit https://linktr.ee/jenniferholik
On 6 January 2021, I presented a program for the Virginia War Memorial Foundation on Healing Through Story. If you missed the live presentation, you can watch the program on my YouTube Channel. Download the handout.
Watch the video replay. Learn more about my classes and facilitation services.
© 2021 Ancestral Souls
Since I began traveling in Europe in 2015, I have visited many WWI and WWII museums, concentration camps, memorials, battlefields, cemeteries, destroyed villages, bomb craters, and other places in which sad/bad/negative/evil things took place. Being an empath I tend to feel much of the energy in these spaces, whether than is positive or negative. I know many of my readers experience similar things. How often do you consider the emotions these places create in you that can be used for change and healing? Or do you experience them for a moment and brush them off and move on?
I read an article recently called, Why We Should Visit Museums That Make Us Think and Cry. I tend to feel, think, and cry in many places I visit so this article really called to my soul. The article focuses more on human and civil rights museums rather than military, but the concept is still the same.
“It’s really important to consider historic and contemporary issues from multiple perspectives so we can combat bias and prejudice – which we might not even realize we have until presented with an alternative view. This is fundamental to understanding and promoting human rights.” Throughout history, and even today, we can see patterns of denial and minimization of human-rights atrocities, along with efforts to silence the survivors and witnesses. These issues are not easy or comfortable, but it’s our role and responsibility to provoke thought and conversation that leads to education – which is the most powerful force for human rights in the world.”
Dr. Jodi Giesbrecht, CMHR director of research and head curator
These spaces are important because for many of us, not all, they create conversation. Often we will visit places like this with someone. As we wander through an exhibit, a cemetery, a concentration camp, or other place, things call to us that we must comment on. Through conversation we hear someone else’s point of view about what is being expressed in the exhibit, etc. Conversation may create questions or points of view for us to sit with, meditate on, journal on, that we had not considered.
These spaces through conversation, meditation, thinking, push us to feel something more than we might have just reading an article or seeing someone’s vacation photos on Facebook. This may then create the need in us to do something about the issues we now know more about. This includes things from history like the Holocaust or combat in World War II.
How can we do something about those issues since they are in the past? Many people are still dealing with the trauma and effects of these events, among many others that have happened in our collective history. Inherited trauma creates in the descendants of those who participated or lived through these events, issues that create chaos, depression, sadness, anxiety or panic and many other things in their lives. Unresolved grief can devastate a family for generations. Yet by visiting these places that evoke emotions and thought, we can best determine how we personally should move forward to help heal the collective.
Doing something could be that we start talking with our own families about their experiences in the war, civil rights, genocide, Holocaust, or other collective trauma events. Writing those stories, learning the lessons, and sharing with others – even within our family – will help.
My belief and what I have experienced throughout my career as a family and military researcher is that if I can impact ONE person, it will ripple out beyond anything I can imagine. Some people do not believe this. They believe you have to stand and speak in front of thousands to have any effect on change or healing. That isn’t my belief. I have seen that if I help one person – teach one person – facilitate some healing in one person – they will go on to do more and tell others what their experience was and how the learned/changed/healed – and that may inspire someone else to look at their life and beliefs and make changes.
What have you experienced in these places? Where did you go? What happened while you were there? What thoughts and changes did you make? What conversations did you have? How did it impact your life, living, and reality? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.
© 2020 Ancestral Souls
2020 continues to give us new information about what is actually happening in the world – in all it’s ugly, horrific truth, and also where the shadows of ourselves need to be brought into the light.
When we look back over our lives, we can identify many turning points and crossroads. Places in which we had a CHOICE on how to proceed. In reality there are no ‘mistakes’ or ‘wrong choices’ because each choice we make still leads us to where we need to go. Even those choices that bring tremendous pain and grief. Those may be the most powerful as the parts of us we have refused or weren’t ready to look at are ready to be explored.
As I look back over the last 10 years of my life, specifically from 2015 to the present when I began traveling and living in Europe, I am seeing many things. New connections. Things healed I did not realize were. Lessons learned. Hard times and good times. If I could go back to my first trip overseas, I would have made a much better attempt at journaling my days every night before bed. However, that trip was so packed and I was so exhausted most days I didn’t. I have a million photos from that trip to remind me what we did. Some notes in my journal but not at the depth I wrote on my second trip. The second trip I took alone and it created even more change than the first. What follows are the journal entries (for the most part) of my second trip which created an even more powerful spiritual transformation in me.
These articles were originally posted on my WWII Research & Writing Center website in 2015.
If you are interested in some of my European and Spiritual Journey since this trip, pick up a copy of my memoir, I BRING DEAD GUYS HOME.
Spiritual Turning Points & Crossroads
Day 2 Part 1 – (15 October 2015)
Day 3 – 16 October 2015 – Bastogne, Belgium
Day 4 – 17 October 2015 – Bastogne, Belgium
Day 5 – 18 October 2015 – Netherlands, Margraten, Maastricht
Day 6 – 19 October 2015- Henri-Chapelle & Remember Museum
Day 7 – 20 October 2015 -Ammerzoden
Day 8 – 21 October 2015 – Heeswijk
Day 9 – 22 October 2015 – Arnhem
Day 10 – 23 October 2015 – Wandering Ammerzoden & Writing
Day 11 – 24 October 2015 – WWII Presentation at CRASH Museum near Amsterdam
Day 12 – 25 October 2015 – Zaltbommel, Netherlands
Day 13 – 26 October 2015 – Goirle, The Netherlands – Speaking for Liberation Day
Day 14 – 27 October 2015 – Honoring Dutch Liberators and War Dead
Day 15 – 28 October 2015 – Speaking on WWII records at Groesbeek, the Netherlands
Day 16 – 29 October 2015 – Den Bosch and the Ring
Day 17 – 30 October 2015 -Goree-Overflakkee Speaking Event & War Dead
Day 18 – 31 October 2015 – Lovenstein and antique shops
© 2020 Ancestral Souls
For the last decade I’ve studied the deeper layers of genealogy and family history. Explored the darker sides of family and ancestors. Looked at the grief, loss, war, fear they lived with, safety issues that existed, survival instincts, PTSD, inherited trauma and other related topics.
Exploring those topics has helped me do my own healing and today I’d like to talk about our current lives and forced isolation alongside our ancestors’ lives where the issues of fear and safety arise. I will provide just a little information around this topic with resources for you to explore.
If you look back in your genealogy, you will find many instances where your ancestors were living in fear and were unsure of their personal safety perhaps due to war or famine, political conflicts, immigration, or natural disasters. Those situations may have been shorter term and affected the ancestors for a period of time. They may have learned to live with the new normal that came after. Some may have shoved their emotions and feelings about it all deep inside to carry the rest of their lives while others were able to heal.
In cases where abuse and rape occurred, those fear and safety issues may have lingered the rest of the ancestor’s life. It has only been in more recent times that we are allowed to talk about these things and start to heal.
In either case, we, the descendants of our ancestors, carry their pain, trauma, fear, and safety issues in our DNA. It is stored in our bodies and within our energy system – the chakras. I can personally say that doing chakra energy healing can shift out a lot of things we carry that aren’t even ours and make a huge difference in how we live. I’ll save that for another article. It will shock you how much we carry that messes us up that isn’t even ours.
I think it’s important to acknowledge the farther back we go in our family history, the less 24/7/365 media programming/brainwashing was available. Today we have news stations and social media channels blasting fear and panic over toilet paper, a virus, lockdowns, vaccines, and food shortages and killer hornets, and every other disease and way to die has been cured because CDC says covid is the only way people are dying now (or is it?) all…day…long.
And the narrative keeps changing – have you noticed? We are slowly being programmed to be in fear and rely more on the government and start to fear things outside our homes. There is a quote that goes something like, I never thought I’d see people so afraid to die that they stopped living.
Have you noticed how much of the world has stopped living?
Would you have been so afraid of the virus if the media had not told you to be afraid? Especially when studies are coming out now that show us it is less deadly than the flu? That the majority of people dying are in nursing homes (which already had care issues?)
Have you noticed the media said there will be no toilet paper so everyone ran out to buy it? We’ll be locked in our homes for decades – so there was a run on food? We can’t open the country safely unless we have a vaccine (even though Fauci said in the Senate Hearing yesterday the vaccine may not work or create more issues for those with prior health issues) – even though there are therapeutics that work (see latest France and Italy studies and what’s coming out in America outside of mainstream media.)
Why were we never told to be afraid when H1N1 came out in 2009? How many of us were so sick with that flu and the country stayed open? No shortage on toilet paper or food… makes you question right? I remember being sicker than I’d ever been with three kids ages 8 and 4 (twins) to take care of and the government didn’t shut down the world.
Less media interference may have created fewer issues with fear and safety. When you examine the propaganda/news created for WWII to get families to buy into the war effort THEN look at the propaganda/news created for WWI (a generation prior) and THEN look at propaganda/news for the generation before that, what do you notice?
These are a few resources you can explore to dip your toes into ancestral healing and personal healing. You may also ask to join my FB Group for more support.
You can also explore Wendy DeRosa’s online course which will take you through some deep healing and possibly assist in removing some fears and safety issues. Register by 27 May 2020.
Every course I have taken with Wendy has transformed my life and removed layers of stuck energy, fears, abuse, trauma, emotion, and more. I highly recommend her course.
Disclaimer: The course and book links are affiliate links and I make a tiny percentage off the sale. This does not affect the price you pay.
© 2020 Ancestral souls
The last two months of lockdown have served so many purposes for our planet and humanity. It has not been easy to accept on many levels. as the comforts and “normal” we lived with was taken away in a matter of minutes. The Mainstream media’s agenda is to push fear at us 24/7 and keep changing the narrative – which most people have been programmed to accept as TRUTH – to keep us under control. When people are afraid they are easier to control. The constant narrative change also means you don’t know who to believe or what is actually real and true.
Isn’t it time you start asking yourself and checking in with your intuition about what’s true for you?
Just because the media or your friends tell you something is true doesn’t make it true for you. Only you know what is true for you – so why aren’t more people checking in with themselves to ask? Because we aren’t taught how. We are also told to just follow the herd.
While I always try to be positive and share things that make people question this reality, many people are now going into the shame, blame, and verbal abuse energy. As an empath this is hard for me to live with. It is harder to live with when people you thought were your friends suddenly start blaming you for THEIR choices. Blaming or shaming you for having a different perspective or knowing about the world that they can’t access.
Somehow no matter what I post, my “friends” seem to think I’m responsible for the choices they made or how they have to live right now. So they blame, shame, post links to refute anything I share. As I shared in my article Did You Forget You Have a Choice in This Life?, I share things to inspire people or help them question this reality. It makes no difference to me what they choose. I’m not living their life. I don’t have to learn their lessons. I will also not take on their shame or blame or anything else they want to fling at me. Not mine. I am not responsible to fix it for you.
As many of us are moving more into this expansive space and setting firmer boundaries, it can start to be a lonely place. A frustrating place. A sad place. Quite honestly there are days it is hard to live with it all. However, when we step back and breathe, find a trusted friend or spiritual healer to talk to, we can more quickly move back into our energy and let the rest go. I do feel it is vital that we grieve, scream, laugh, cry, whatever our bodies need to do to release this energy as we keep transitioning. When it gets stuck it hurts and can create disease.
Over the last few weeks I’ve unfriended/unfollowed more than 300 people on various social media accounts. I’ve started blocking people who seem to live for trolling other people’s posts and start verbally abusing and shaming them. Even people I thought were my friends. That I’ve met in real life. Maybe that energy is fun for them. It doesn’t work for me. Thank you to all those people for showing me who you really are. Now I can continue on my path with less toxicity in my life.
I think many things are factoring into this way of being for probably 90% of the planet.
One of the spiritual teachers I’ve followed for years said in a class recently that her circle of friends is very tiny. Only certain people get access to who she really is. And if you cross her boundaries, which she set to live her life in a high vibrational, magical, anything is possible way – you’re out. That’s it.
I did some journaling around this and wrote a set of rules for who I will allow in my inner circle. You know what, it felt really good to set new boundaries about who gets to be in my space. It also opens up a new way for me to BE in the world and with the rest of humanity.
While we move through this transition, I feel it is important to examine our boundaries. Priorities. Rules by which we live. Whatever you want to call that. What is working? What no longer works? Who can you say goodbye to in your life to remove toxicity? Who should you allow in to promote growth and expansion of all that’s possible? These are choices only you can make. You have a choice to not stay in blame, shame, and verbal abuse.
I invite you to journal on some of the topics in this article. What resonates for you? Where have you been afraid to remove people or energies from your life that drag you down and don’t allow you to create or expand?
It is not always and easy thing to let people and energies go. It takes inner strength, trust in our intuition and awareness, and powerful boundaries for ourselves. We are the only ones who can create our lives. We are the only opinion or voice who really matters in how we choose to live.
© 2020 Ancestral Souls
1 November was one of my very favorite days of the trip. That morning I drove to Achtmaal, Netherlands to meet some of the Friends of the Timberwolves at the Achtmaal Museum. I met Esther, Adrie, Sjaan and Kevin, Peet, and Herman.
The day was perfect. Warm sun, a slight breeze, colorful fall leaves falling from the trees, and new friends. We met at the museum and after coffee and cookies with a history lesson thrown in, I had a tour. Time was short because we had a lot to see that day, so on my trip in May I will have to try to meet with the group again and see more of the museum. The museum houses not only Timberwolf artifacts but also artifacts from other groups who fought in the area.
Upon completion of the tour we hopped in two jeeps and took off through the countryside. Peet was my driver and also the man who gave me a history lesson over coffee. As we drove, he told me about the routes we took, where the fighting occurred and details about the men and war. We stopped at many sites to see where battles happened, including were my friend John Tyrrell was wounded.
It was very interesting to look at my photos and the little bit of video I shot while Peet was driving. There are a lot of red orbs in my photos. Soldiers watching and waiting. Protecting. Usually they don’t show up quite like that in my photos. But there they were!
Seeing the places battles were fought, or concentration camps where so many died, is high on my list of things to do when I visit Europe. What is difficult is trying to picture these now serene, often beautiful places through the eyes of someone who was there 70+ years ago. Trying to wrap my head around what happened there and then put that into words that explain it, is difficult. It is often unimaginable the horrors that took place in such a calm place where crops grow or sheep graze today. And everywhere we went, I could feel the presence of all the soldiers, regardless of side on which they fought, in those fields. In some areas, like the Battle Between the Dikes, the energy was so intense it rode in waves through me.
After visiting many places the Timberwolves fought, we stopped for lunch in an old building where I met Toine Vermunt, a local historian and author. Toine gave me a short history lesson after lunch before we departed the area. He showed me maps of Holland and explained where the Timberwolves were, what happened at the building we were having lunch in, and what we would see in the afternoon. The Battle Between the Dikes. Toine gave me a booklet in English, he wrote a few years ago explaining this battle. I am grateful to have this history.
Toine rode with us to see the area where the Battle Between the Dikes took place, after first stopping to lay flowers at a Timberwolf Memorial. It was as if the Timberwolves were waiting for us because the energy at the memorial about dropped me to my knees.
Our next stop was at a woman’s home where we were allowed to walk behind and stand by the canal and look at the area where the men were fighting and attempting to cross. Another beautiful place where such horror occurred.
Driving through the areas where the Battle Between the Dikes was fought was intense. The energy from both sides argued with each other. The Allied soldiers were calmer and just wanted to go home. The German side was angry to the point I was feeling a bit nauseous for a while. I cannot count the number of times that day I said clearing statements to send people off into the light and transmute the energy.
As the afternoon began drawing to a close, our last stop was at the Basilica in Oudenbosch. We had about 15 minutes there because they were about to close. It is another place to which I must return. The Basilica is a small replica of St. Peter’s in Rome. Small does not do it justice as it feels gigantic and I felt very tiny in that beautiful place. I was able to light some candles for my soldiers and say some prayers before we left.
The Basilica held a lot of energy also. It felt heavy as if every prayer, question, wish, hope, dream, despair, frustration, and death that ever was left in the building, remained. In a way I was happy to only have 15 minutes in that place. After such an intense day, any longer might have done me in.
After returning the jeeps to the Timberwolf HQ and saying goodbye to my new friend Adrie, the rest of us went out for dinner before I drove back to Ammerzoden, where I was staying for two weeks.
The day I spent with the Friends of the Timberwolves was one of my favorite days from this trip. It was incredible and moving to be surrounded by people with such passion for World War II and our soldiers. People who understood the soldiers still walk in the mists and live among the items in their museum. People who honor the memories of those who gave them their freedom. And, my absolute favorite part of the day – meeting Kevin who is a teenager and has the desire to preserve the stories of these men. It warms my heart to see young people wanting to be involved in this work. It provides the promise that when the older generation is gone and my generation is aging, there will still be someone sharing the stories and memories.
© 2020 Ancestral Souls