I came across an article this week that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about. It was about how trauma isn’t just a personal experience, but something that can leave a literal imprint on our genes, which then gets passed down to our kids and their kids.
The idea that our ancestors’ struggles could contribute to our own anxiety or depression is… a lot. It’s heavy. But it also makes a strange kind of sense. It feels like it adds another layer to our family stories, the parts that are never spoken but are always felt.
It reminds me of some of the most compelling nature photography I’ve seen, where you can see the history of a landscape in its form—a windswept tree or a coastline carved by storms. We carry our history in our bodies in a similar way.
The science is pretty complex, but if you’re interested in going down this rabbit hole with me, you can find the research I was reading at the link in my bio.
Photograph by Tek Image, Science Photo Library