HEAL YOUR FAMILY

A debut guide offers an innovative and singular approach to family healing.

In this book, Block delivers an inventive technique that incorporates ancestors and family stories to help readers address repressed negative emotions and belief systems. Advocating the use of meditative reflections and repetitive mantras, the author encourages a healing process that involves becoming aware of ancestors’ struggles and freeing the baggage that comes from family origins, turmoil, conflicts, and tragedies. For example, Block explains that a problem perceived by a family member, such as an unhappy marriage or the lack of a desired son or daughter, might cause the individual to adopt roles or burdens to try to compensate. By practicing the methods suggested by the author and examining family history, a person can tap into love rather than fear and turmoil. This title stands out from the bevy of self-help books that encourage readers to reflect solely on their own experiences for clues to healing and improvement. Block instead argues that each individual carries the experiences and convictions of ancestors. Only by liberating the blocked guilt, repressed anger, and false beliefs of those past generations can readers truly steer their own lives toward mindfulness and joy. One of the most intriguing aspects of the book is its treatment of guilt, which delves into the specific ways this feeling causes anxiety and turbulence (“Guilt is a plague preventing you from thriving when it permeates your life. Your decisions are paralyzed during this time of confusion. There’s even a name for this phenomenon: analysis paralysis. You’re paralyzed by your analysis of your options, since you’re so afraid of making a mistake”). Through her engaging tone and clear organization, the author takes complex topics and breaks them down into simple practices that should relieve readers of unresolved family baggage.

A successful, conversational manual that should enlighten readers about ancestral stories and their emotional effects.