What if some of the grief you carry isn't entirely yours? In this episode we'll open what Francis Weller identified as the Fifth Gate of Grief: ancestral grief. We're talking about the unacknowledged, untended sorrows of those who came before us: lost languages, severed connections to land and ritual, collective traumas like war, displacement, and genocide. But we're also talking about the science; specifically, epigenetics and how it can help explain how those experiences literally get woven into our biology and passed down through generations, even when we don't know the stories. The good news? What gets passed down can also be healed. You don't have to carry rancid snacks in your backpack forever (you'll get that reference when you listen). And this gate, like all the others, ultimately opens into something more expansive — resilience, power, and the steady ground of equanimity.

This episode is part of a 10-part series on grief. You can jump in here and circle back to Episode 248 when you're ready.

p.s. Find a Simple Joy practice for this episode right here at our blog.

About: The Joy Lab Podcast blends science and soul to help you cope better with stress, ease anxiety, and uplift mood. Join Dr. Henry Emmons and Dr. Aimee Prasek for practical, mindfulness-based tools and positive psychology strategies to build resilience and create lasting joy.

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Sources and Notes for this full grief series:

Joy Lab Program: Take the next leap in your wellbeing journey with step-by-step practices to help you build and maintain the elements of joy in your life.
Grief Series:

The Grief Series: The Wholeness of Being Human [part 1, ep 248]
Everything We Love, We Will Lose: Navigating the First Gate of Grief[part 2, ep 249]
Welcoming Back the Parts of You That Have Not Known Love [part 3, ep 250]
Why You Can't Escape the Sorrows of the World (and why that's a good thing) [part 4, ep 251]
Born to Belong: Grieving What Should Have Been There From the Start [part 5, ep 252]

Wild Edge of Sorrow by Francis Weller
"Something magical happens when we bear witness to each other in grief. Something alchemical. It transmutes the lead of our devastation into the gold of connection. Our own compassion is activated. Our souls are soothed. The narrow circle of our private pain expands and we recognize that we belong to each other. We take our rightful place in the web of interbeing and find refuge." -Mirabai Starr
Beckes & Sbarra, Social baseline theory: State of the science and new directions. Access here
Beckes, et al. (2011). Social Baseline Theory: The Role of Social Proximity in Emotion and Economy of Action. Access here
Bunea et al. (2017). Early-life adversity and cortisol response to social stress: a meta-analysis. Access here.
Eisma, et al. (2019). No pain, no gain: cross-lagged analyses of posttraumatic growth and anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress and prolonged grief symptoms after loss. Access here
Kamis, et al. (2024). Childhood maltreatment associated with adolescent peer networks: Withdrawal, avoidance, and fragmentation. Access here
Lehrner, et al. (2014). Maternal PTSD associates with greater glucocorticoid sensitivity in offspring of Holocaust survivors. Access here
Hirschberger G. (2018). Collective Trauma an d the Social Construction of Meaning. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 1441. Access here
Sheehy, et al. (2019). An examination of the relationship between shame, guilt and self-harm: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Access here
Strathearn, et al. (2020). Long-term Cognitive, Psychological, and Health Outcomes Associated With Child Abuse and Neglect. Access here
Yehuda et al. (1998). Vulnerability to posttraumatic stress disorder in adult offspring of Holocaust survivors. Access here.
Yehuda, et al. (2018). Intergenerational transmission of trauma effects: putative role of epigenetic mechanisms. Access here

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Breaking the Cycle: Ancestral Grief, Epigenetics, and the Power to Change Your Legacy [253]