Family Patterns

CATEGORY: SOCIAL

Why:

The better we understand our families, the better we understand ourselves and can become authors of our own lives.

Warm-Up:

What is one thing you really appreciate about your family? What is one thing that frustrates you?

Exploration:

In ways big and small, we absorb habits, ideas, and ways of seeing the world from our families. So if you want to know yourself, understanding your family is a good starting point. What do you think you've learned from your parents (whether or not you agree with it) about important areas like friendship, work, or how to handle emotions? What have you learned from your family about good or bad ways to handle conflict?

Additional Resources

As an optional element for this exploration, here are two videos exploring this topic further:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YER_3afM20
This asks the question "Is there someone you have not forgiven yet?" and shares many short snippets of people of all ages answering this question.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rwcp_oEIwnU
In Oprah's inimitable style, this video shares some of the wisdom from her years of interviews on the topic of forgiveness.