Some traits passed down from our generational legacy are beautiful, e.g., our stunning looks, intellect, lovely personality, genuineness, kindness, generosity, self-sufficiency, etc.
So what are generational cycles?
They are negative patterns or traits. They are passed down from our family’s history to several generations until someone decided to break these vicious cycles.
In earlier days, we barely hear the term “generational cycles.” But, in today’s world, we often hear these words ”YOU HAVE TO BREAK THE CYCLE,” so okay, why is it so essential for us to break generational cycles? So that this destructive invasive trait/behavior stops robbing us of our birthright. And the fantastic creativity that we were born with that bringeth forth our abundant life.
We battle with these negative behaviors, destructive patterns, and self-destructive lifestyles. Unfortunately, most people are not even aware of these vicious, repetitive cycles passed down to us. However, to identify these vicious cycles, pay close attention to the negative, self-destructive patterns in your life. The ones that keep repeating themselves and are being passed down to our children, AKA these are generational cycles.
Generational cycles can only be broken if we become fully aware of them.
Connections Paradise
So In this blog post, let’s discuss how to recognize these generational cycles. And the importance of breaking them. Since I struggled earlier in my life with a few generational cycles before identifying and breaking them, I will be sharing my life’s transformation and these cycles as well. However, “I hope that this topic will bring some awareness to the importance of identifying and breaking generational cycles.
My transformation
I can speak of breaking a few generational cycles because I’ve lived them. Once, I was able to identify that childhood abandonment has been in my family trait for generations. And because of the childhood trauma that it had caused me. So I knew I had to break this vicious cycle. To make sure my children don’t suffer the same childhood trauma that I did.
How a Parent’s Affection Shapes a Child’s Happiness for Life
The ability to being affectionate was a challenging experience for me. As a child, being nurtured was not a big part of my upbringing. Therefore, as an adult for many years, holding hands, saying I love you, being supportive, and giving hugs was a big issue. It took me a long time to break this cycle. By taking baby steps, even though being affectionate, would feel weird at times. But I managed to keep doing it anyway until I felt comfortable doing it. When children are not nurtured, this can cause all kinds of emotional issues in their adulthood. So ending this cycle was very beneficial for my children and me. 
So anyone who knows me now would not even know that I struggled in this area. Because now hugs are one of my favorites to give and receive, and I mean great big bear hugs
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When I first migrated to the United States, not having proper money management skills was disastrous. So I got caught up in this vicious poor money management cycle. For example, with over ten maxed-out credit cards at one point. Living from paycheck to paycheck, I could’ve only afforded to pay the minimum due on each card. And I would go right back and charge what I paid. Sometimes this would result in me going over my credit limit because I would spend more than I paid.
This was a vicious cycle because I came from a poor background with no knowledge of managing my money after several years of struggling with this lifestyle. I realized that I was not exercising proper money-management skills, and my spending habits were not helping me but rather disastrous. So, therefore, I knew that this cycle had to stop with me. And to prevent this cycle from trickling down to my children and possibly continues to the next generation.
Another vital part of this is to create generational wealth. For my children and generations to come as well, to escape the quote-on-quote “cycle of the poverty trap.”And how was I suppose to create generational wealth if I didn’t break the vicious cycle of bad money management?
Creating generational wealth
According to Google
Generational wealth is: a collection of financial resources passed down across multiple generations in a family. If you can leave behind a noteworthy inheritance to your descendants, that’s generational wealth.
My area of expertise is not in financial planning or investment. I am not trying to be, so I’m not giving any financial advice, but simply shedding light and some essential tips on how imperative it is to create generational wealth. And these are just some helpful day-to-day tips on how to do that.
So, when creating generational wealth, how do we create a sustainable legacy for many generations? And we should be thinking about the kind of financial legacy that we would like to leave behind.
Educating ourselves on ways to invest our money in life insurance, real estate, creating business to pass down, investing in the stock market, investing in college funds for our children, etc. Importantly so that our children are not trapped in the student loans cycle system, if we position ourselves to pay for our child’s/children college, we’re already setting them up for success. In addition, we’re keeping more funds accessible to our children by lifting the financial burden to pay back these outrageous student loans after they graduate from college.
Breaking the poverty cycle
So when it comes to the “quote on quote” poverty trap.” How do we escape this cycle to create generational wealth for our children and our next generation? First, ensure that we are not spending more than what we earned (living above our means). Second, becoming aware of impulsive shopping, separating our needs from our wants, and planning. Third, adopting the “sleep on it purchase method.”(wait for 24 hours and see if the desired to make the purchase goes away.) Most of the time, we can live without most of the things that we impulsively buy. I have done this several times. I’ve added items that are on sale to my shopping cart and left them overnight. I woke up the next day to find out my desire had changed.
Fourth, cold heart saving, yes, putting away a portion of our earnings. And fifth creating a budget and sticking to it. Our money should not be telling us what to do; instead, we should talk to it and tell it what to do.
Even after 20 + years, I can still hear my aunt’s voice in my head Chevette separate your needs from your wants they’re two different things.
Educating our children on managing their money will equip them with the skills to prevent poverty. For example, we are teaching them to save a portion of their allowances strategically. The earlier they’re introduced to proper money management skills, the sooner they’ll develop and master these skills to break this cycle.
Please don’t assume that generational cycles are our fault.
Generational cycles that go unchecked, unnoticed and not dealt with will continue to be passed down to each generation.
Please don’t assume that generational cycles are our fault, but our responsibility is to break these negative traits. So the quicker we identify and break them it will be more beneficial for ourselves and our children. Especially, If these dysfunctional negative habits affect our loved ones or livelihood, the saying “my mamma or my daddy was/is the same.” We should take Negative dysfunctional behavior more seriously, and they’re nothing to joke around with or be proud of.
Once we’ve identified these negative cycles, instead of enabling these destructive patterns or make excuses for these bad habits and behavior, we must take responsibility for our actions and hold ourselves accountable for breaking these negative patterns.
So if you’re feeling trapped or think that there is no hope and these dysfunctional patterns are part of your life, it will just be this way for the rest of your life. It is not. There is hope. A transformational mindset is achievable for anyone. And I said this because transformation is an inside job. So start shifting your mindset to break the negative cycle. When transformation takes place, it will change your perspective and your outlook on life. Seek help from a Transformation Life Coach, your church, pastor, trustworthy friend, psychologist, or mental Health Coach if this goes much deeper. Etc.
Final thoughts
Generational cycles do affect all of us either positively or negatively. But of course, some of us identified these negative cycles earlier in our lives before they get trickled down. But whether we’ve identified these negative cycles early or later on in our lives. As long as they’re being dealt with, these vicious traits will be broken but should end with us.
There are countless generational cycles in our world today. And another critical cycle that is all of our responsibility to break. To become mentors, better and more effective role models to our younger generation, whether if we’re related to them or not, we should be that person that they respect and look up to.
6Ways to break generational cycles
- Becoming self-aware of these destructive patterns.
- Educating yourself about family history.
- Taking accountability to own your part.
- Don’t be afraid to reach out for help.
- Ensure that it stops with you.
- Accepting that generational cycles are our responsibility to break.
- Seek professional help if this goes deeper and it’s psychologically
