Healing for the Generation X

If you’re a Generation Xer, you’re probably just like me…

• Many of our parents didn't get on, toxic divorces, toxic step-parents and instability were common - as was the judgement from others families about this.
• Childhood was out playing with our friends until the street-lights came on, and then out of sight and out of mind at home.
• Our boomer parents were too busy getting over their own childhood to actually parent us - so we self-parented and became independent, resourceful and self-sufficient.  Savvy but cynical with it.  We learned not to expect much, and learned to value that freedom and self-responsibility which harked back to the best memories of our childhood - getting muddy and falling off our bikes with our besties.
• Sexual and physical abuse was ignored and endured and many of us still carry some scars of that stuff.
• We adapt well to change as we needed to, to keep up with our flighty boomer parents, so now as adults we like to do things on our own terms - with a modicum of control.
• We were latch-key kids, which we loved and hated in equal measure.  Workaholic parents drove us to value work-life balance with our own families above all else.
• We had amazing relationships with our grandparents who shared their hard-earned wisdom with us and we strongly felt the loss of that generation who noticed us and cared for us.
• We carry more than a few classroom wounds in our psyche, from the teachers that shut us down to the bullyingschool room culture.
• We felt really confused when the self-confident Millennial generation emerged after us, as we had had any potential self-esteem firmly knocked out of us, but we like the look of it and fancy a bit of that self-acceptance ourselves (as long as it doesn’t make us look too uncool).
• Our parents were raised by a shell-shocked and war-traumatised generation, and possibly as a consequence so many of our parents' generation fit the mould of Cluster B personality disorders.  Those of us that identify with that grew up bewildered, hyper vigilant and low-level depressed.  Not surprising that we invented ’grunge', 'emo’ and the resting b*tch face.
• We’re the generation that noticed everything, and felt everything too.  Whilst our parents wanted to expand their minds, we didn't want to turn on, tune in - we just wanted to drop out.  We quietly tried to figure it all out by ourselves.
• We grew up feeling that life was a party that we were either too old for or too young for.  Still today we’re the ones working diligently whilst the older and younger generation seem to have all the fun without the responsibility.  Probably because we’re the ones that parented the partying parent, whilst also looking after/ shielding  the younger siblings. 
• As a generation we can see the problems in the World that need solving and we know that we’re the ones the mantle is being handed to.  We have the innate sense of responsibility and the nouse to do it too. We are the ones that respect personal space and personal differences too.   We see both sides of the argument.

• However without early nurture we feel a sense of responsibility but we don't always feel empowered to act.  We see the problem, but don’t quite believe in ourselves to get stuck in to it.  The lack of self-trust is holding us back as a generation and keeping us stuck.  We’ve got this strong sense of purpose in this World but our emotional toolkitgrowing up was the lyrics of our music and the poetry of our observational literature.
• Innately we feel a sense of purpose - of making a contribution to the whole, of lifting others up and making the World a better place in our work.

So what would happen if we did have all the tools to unlock our potential today? To dig out those old wounds?  To unlock ourselves from being stuck?  

To gain the world-is-yours belief of the boomers, with the self-esteem of the millennials. 

We’d self-actualise and be unstoppable, we’d be Generation Un-stoppable.

We have so much latent power as a generation, power that we’ve only seen glimpses of so far. 

We are visionary yet grounded, we’ve lived the old ways but are also fully immersed in the new ways too. 

We see everything. 

We can make a massive positive impact on this World and all that is holding us back is our lack of ‘self-love’, self-worth, 'self-trust' as a generation.  But we can get there.  

These are solvable problems and that’s how my journey unfolded - a journey which led me to creating The Energy Gardener™.  Get in touch to find out how you can get moving towards your potential and fulfilling your purpose as a positive change agent in this World.

📷 Photo by Joshua Ness on Unsplash