Josh TrentIdentity Transformation Architect and award winning Host of the Wellness + Wisdom Podcast—a decade-strong show with over 750 episodes and 15M downloads.

Unlocking Compassion: Healing Generational Trauma #shorts

25 Aug 2026 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

1:42

In this emotionally charged YouTube short, the speaker recounts a visceral experience of feeling overwhelmed by deep childhood pain, describing a breakthrough moment when their heart "opened" and they accessed compassion for their younger self, their mother, and their lineage. They trace a three‑generation pattern of trauma, noting that both grandmothers and their mother were reactive, abusive, or emotionally distant, largely because each was the child of an orphan. Recognizing that the painful behaviors were not personal but inherited, the speaker experiences a release of emotional charge, illustrating how self‑compassion and understanding of family history can begin to heal generational trauma.

Chapters

I was staying with this utter painful experience of being just devoured, swallowed up, held, clutched, crunched. I mean, suffocated, just this whole thing. And I kept staying with it until something broke open, which what you were saying before about feelings was my heart. You know, my heart opened. I was able to feel compassion for that young part of me in the womb. I was able to feel compassion for my mom, whose mom was very matter-of-fact because her mom was an orphan at age 2, lost both parents. So, you know, as I started to see the whole map, you know, because it was like a map had been laid out in front of me, Josh. And I could see going back 3 generations that everyone was a hot mess. Everybody, my mother, my grandmother, they're reactive, they're screaming, they're hitting, they're beating you within an inch of your life. This is my family that I come from. Or they'd go in the other direction. They'd be extremely cold or have really cruel words. And, you know, both my grandmothers, you know, weren't very good at mothering and my mom wasn't very good at mothering. And then in that moment, Josh, here's the big thing. I realize it's not personal. I go, oh, I realize that any child of an orphan, which they all are, wouldn't receive that type of mothering. My mother had difficulty being present. And once I got that, the emotional charge dropped.