There is no disputing that many of our traits and propensities in life originate from the integration of our ancestral past. The stirring of our ancestral inheritance speaks to us daily if we are willing to listen. The voices of family values, generational traumas and the choices of our ancestors affect us psychologically and influence our relationships with family and friends.

Our ability to become acquainted with this circle of life and our family story contributes greatly to our responsibility to pay our actions forward to future generations.The ultimate question posed when engaging in this investigative work is a deeply personal reflection: what kind of ancestor do you want to be?

It is a rare practice to unravel and peer into the keyhole of our ancestral patterns and extract the legacies and inherited truths. It is often not until later years of life that we find ourselves wanting to walk where others have walked, and to preserve their stories. At this time, we also begin to experience the passing of family and witness the past creep into our daily lives.

The transitory nature of life and our indelible mark upon future generations begins to hold a psychic responsibility. Our choices today, both large and small, will affect many people, and instead of burdening future generations with damage control, we can gift them with a life of greater ease.We can start laying the good-human groundwork by living our lives with the pondering of a few simply questions:

What kind of ancestor do you want to be?
What is your interconnected relationship between nature, creativity and your cultivation of energy towards life?
What role do you see yourself playing in change?
What aspects of your life support therapeutic work, inner-healing and health?
In what ways would you make changes to improve the lives of your loved ones?

A known Greek proverb states that, “a society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit.” We live in a time where knowing and preserving family values holds challenge; we know less about our great grandparents than they did about theirs.Knowing that those before us provided the shade of trees for our supported life is a reaffirming thought. Such rumination may also encourage us to plant shade trees.

Conversely, many of our ancestors made unskillful decisions and the reverberations from poor past life choices affect us today. We can begin to look at each woven thread of our ancestral tapestry and leverage knowledge as our North Star to guide us. Each of us holds great meaning and significance in this greater constellation called “family legacy.”

As we ask ourselves the question, “What kind of ancestor do we want to be?”, we are encouraged to keep in mind this is not a future question as to how we want to be remembered. We are writing the script to this story daily with each choice and each non-choice. The meaning held in life moment to moment is what will be handed over for future generations.

Jennifer Di Francesco is a wellness explorer and desert adventurist and can be reached at www.coachellabellaboho.com.