Your family of origin is the family that you grew up with and in some cases, they might not have even been blood relations. Our pasts are not always warm and fluffy memories. They are filled with pain and addiction. I have worked with some very strong men and women that stuff their families of origin into a box and do not ever pull that box out and look at it. We develop our defensive mechanisms to keep that box as far away from us as possible. We then skate through our youth on our own thinking that we never have to look back. Eventually, we do have to look at that box and try to figure out how to survive under new and different rules.

We are the sum of about five people in our lives. Think about your strengths and weaknesses, then think about where those qualities came from in your past. Who influenced you to be who you are today? I know this is scary to think about and I know that there are things you want to forget.