Photo Credit: Michael Lux – Sitting in a bar in Rome watching Italian soccer
What happens when we become disconnected from all or part of our families of origin, our languages, or our culture? How does it live in our bodies? I’ve had much time to be with this.
All four of my grandparents were immigrants from Italy who left between 1909 and 1912. None of them ever returned to visit their families. They met their spouses in the USA and created new families that were unlike their own. While they each eventually married someone from their region of Italy, they were from different places. My grandmothers were from small towns, and my grandfathers were from large cities.
The Italian language, food, and culture were part of my parents’ upbringing. Both parents started school in the USA not speaking English. The schools they attended treated them as if they lacked intellectual ability rather than needing to learn English. This experience damaged them for life. Their response to this trauma was to forbid their children to speak Italian because they did not want us to suffer the way they did.
I’ve written about how a body sense that learning Italian is a heart desire for me, something that would significantly improve my life. I’ve been studying Italian and attending Changes sessions with Italian focusers via video conferencing. There was a session that helped me learn how vital regaining access to this ancestral language could be.
During my session with my Italian partner, I decided to hold space for my digestive system that has always been an unhappy part of me. First came gentle inner-directed movements, then my hands rested on the areas of my abdomen that feel the most pain. There was also some burping and gurgling. As I held this space, a thought came for me “the worst has passed.” I do not understand what this was referring to, but my body was letting go of something, and I felt some relief.
As I was holding space for this part, I had an urge to say this phrase in Italian. I asked my partner to translate it for me so I could say it on my own. She said, “Il peggio è passato.” When I repeated those words, my body understood it differently. My body suddenly bent over toward the table in front of me, and I began to sob. It recognized and responded to this phrase more dramatically in Italian than saying the words in English.
I do not know what accounts for this difference. I want to hold space for what happened without judgment of what it meant so that more can come. Even though there is a “not knowing” why the Italian words were so much more powerful, I can hold space for the fact they were. This experience supports that felt sense that something special awaits me as I learn more Italian. I am also a bit bewildered how that particular phrase happened to show up in Italian when I never spoke any words of Italian until I was in my twenties. I remember thinking that this may be coming from an inherited trauma rather than something I actually experienced.
It also helps me understand that the experience of immigration can take generations to find a harmonious place. Immigration has become a contentious issue in our country right now. My heart goes out to all those who are experiencing the type of life energy stopping treatment that my relatives suffered.
how very moving , thank you, Diana.
What a remarkable and remarkably moving essay in witnessing of your practice of Wholebody Focusing.
Thank you Nancy. As my practice becomes more regular, amazing, unexpected things start showing up. I recommend working toward a daily practice to everyone.
Diana, I have now read this blog several times and continued to be struck how Italian somehow is in your DNA. How is this possible??? and embedded along with Italian as a language is Italian as a culture and I sense this embedding is in many different layers. Is this the background feeling that Marine talks about????
Wonderful that through your WBF practice you have been able to get in touch with the Italian in your DNA.
I am leaving myself open not to make assumptions what it means that words in Italian have a stronger meaning for my body than English words. I am holding the not know why and learning as much Italian as I can. Thanks for your response to the blog.