It is time to add mental tips to the Power of Our Roots in 2023. The Latin American community is unique because of its diverse demographics. Our ancestral roots past can trigger areas of our lives impacted by past traumas or wounds when we explore and unravel them. Even discussing certain topics with family can cause conflicts and lead to the emergence of unhealed traumas or buried family secrets. Our community soil contains several past traumatic events that have created a sensitivity when it comes to discovering our ancestral histories. Various historical events have left an impact on our community, including slavery, colonialism, indigenous historical extraction, and many others. We have all been impacted by these traumatic events, from how we connect, how we communicate, and how we write, to the way we store generational body trauma, how we alter our DNA, how we think, and how we perceive the world. Bringing these social realities and past traumas to the surface leads to the correlation between mental health and the power of our roots. Exploring the ancestral histories of Santo Domingo, Cartagena, and many other cities in Latin America is thrilling and exciting, but if we skip one crucial element, we will not be able to activate the Power of Our Roots, which is why the following mental health tips will help you dig deeper into your roots.
REGULATING OUR EMOTIONS AND SELF-AWARENESS
Families are not perfect, and Latin American families are no different, especially with such a rich history. Online information on regulating our emotions is essential especially when we ask our families about certain topics that can trigger us or them. Whether it’s where our family history comes from, colorism, past divorces, grandfather or grandmother affairs, family incest, or any other issue, it’s important to realize that these concerns could trigger us and prevent us from learning our family history or building our family tree in the future. The situations described above can even trigger your parents’ trauma and cause a fight between them or yourself. No es facil! Self-awareness is important, and we shouldn’t hide in shame that our roots come from a horrific historical trauma. Furthermore, discovering your roots may also trigger and uproot areas of healing, so it’s important to seek a therapist. Regulating our emotions and tagging a dose of self-awareness is critical.
LA FAMILIA ARCHIVE-Roots
The title above was intended to add a little humor, but every family has a member who keeps family secrets. There is a tia who knows your grandparents’ generational truth or a tio who has saved family photos. I hope that you get the point and search or if you already know that person who you trust who knows a lot about your family history, you can approach them. They can assist you in your quest to discover your roots. When you connect with the family storyteller who doesn’t stop telling our family stories during the holidays, you are doing something meaningful and valuable to the power of our roots.
ANCESTRAL TREE ROOTS BUILDING
Find a website that allows you to build your generational tree as you uncover information about your family before you embark on your journey or create your packing list. Ancestry, for instance, provides tools to help you create a tree that can be saved as a digital version for future generations. Documenting your journey is important for helping the next generation avoid the cultural disruption you experienced due to a lack of communication. Our mission is to plant seeds generationally and unleash our roots’ power.
CULTURAL AND IDENTITY THERAPIST
A therapist can be very beneficial for your journal, especially when you uncover unhealed traumas. You can find therapists who specialize in culture and identity and who are trained to assist with dealing with past cultural traumas and how these traumas affected your identity. BetterHelp or Psychology Today companies can be good sources for finding qualified therapists. Mental support is important during an ancestral or digging into roots journey.
Our mission is to educate our community to navigate the journey of learning about their roots in a stable and mentally healthy way, to heal our communities, and pave the way for future generations. Do you have an effective method for learning about your ancestral roots? Which websites help find resources regarding the above topics? Let the community know if you have answers by commenting below.