I Inherited My Grandmother and Mother’s Nervous Systems

Key points

Memories of trauma are imprinted in our parents' and grandparents' sperm and egg cells.

We can be born with altered brains that prepare us to cope with the traumas of the generations before us.

Trauma responses like fight, flight, freeze, and fawn are how animals and people escape perceived danger.

Somatic therapy helps create new patterns in the nervous system.

My grandmother (bottom left) as a teenager. Source: Sharon Kwon

My grandmother was born in 1939, at the brink of World War II, when Korea was still occupied by Japan. She grew up with fighter planes flying overhead in the Korean countryside, without any running water or electricity. Her childhood was characterized by wars, colonialism, and constant fear . Concepts like " identity " and "belonging" were fore