InnerSelf.com

The family blueprint that you inherited was chosen by you because it provided you with opportunities to develop in the areas you had previously selected. Perhaps you wanted to develop the art of forgiveness, understanding, compassion, determination, courage, or any number of...

Birth Order Personalities develop as coping strategies each one of us used as children to make ourselves feel okay in our particular positions in the family. Think about this: A second-born child is surely going to act differently than the first-born, even if they both have the same hair, the family gap between their two front teeth, and big feet.

Of course, your ancestors can and do leave behavioral and attitudinal legacies that help you actualize your innate potentials. Mingled with ancestral legacies we discover blessings as well as curses. You can take a major step toward maturing when you can see and accept both the good and the bad in other...

I was sexually abused - for 8 years. By my brother. There it is, out in in the open for everyone to know. No lies, no stories, just the truth and me. I am tired of secrets and hush hushes behind the door. It happens, and no one wants to talk to about it. Can you imagine the furor that would have been caused if I had come forward and said, as the daughter of a protestant minister, that I was being sexually abused by my own brother.

The way you see your own family  of origin may be affected by your unique genetic temperament as well as by your childhood experience. Your life journey began with your parents or primary caregivers, and your childhood experience of gifts, hurts, and disappointments: these became the very foundation of your ideas about love and pain.

In my circle of friends, I was the first middle-aged daughter to take care of an aging parent. In the two decades since her death, people have told me many stories of difficult mother-daughter relationships that healed through caregiving. Their stories have given me the gift of healing. Forgiveness, compassion, acceptance, and love grow through empathy for and understanding of the experiences of others.

by Kathryn Andries.

The family unit is a complex mixture of personalities who come together to learn, heal, and love. It is the first place we begin our Earthly journey. Family is instrumental in helping us fulfill our soul's purpose by helping us learn karmic lessons and providing an environment in which we can develop our gifts and talents.

Whether your mother lives in her own home, with you, in a facility, or a long distance from you, there are many things you can do to make Mothers' Day a special day for her. * Plan to spend loving, compassionate, quality time with her. * Engage her in discussions about her past and where she is now in this stage of her life...