Epigenetics Explained: Are You Living Out Your Family’s Fears?

What if the fear that holds you back isn’t really yours? That’s the question at the heart of my conversation with Lisa Thomas, an epigenetics and wellness mentor and TEDx speaker. Here’s epigenetics explained in plain words, and what it could mean for the patterns you’ve been fighting.

Epigenetics Explained in Plain Words

Lisa splits it into two sides. One is the physical: our height, our eye colour, the size of our bones. The other is how things show up in our lives.

“That side of epigenetics is the emotional side, and that comes from our ancestors and the things that they experienced, and those things get passed down.”

She’s careful to add that it “doesn’t mean everybody in the family inherits the same things, and it doesn’t mean that what you inherit actually gets turned on.” And she’s honest about where her view comes from: “I’m not a research scientist… just comes from years of working with people.”

Can Fear Be Inherited?

Lisa pointed to a study from Emory University. Mice smelled cherry blossom while their feet were given a small electric shock. Soon, the smell alone brought panic. The surprise came a generation later, in pups whose mothers “were not part of the study”:

“Those pups never were zapped with the electric current, but when they smelled the cherry blossom fragrance, they had anxiety.”

A Fear That Went Back Generations

Lisa shared the story of a business owner who came to her ready to sell. “Honestly, everybody quits on me,” she said. “I only have two employees left.” Every decision felt like panic.

When they looked back, the pattern came from her great-great-grandfather’s side, and the Great Depression. “My grandfather was a wealthy man in the Great Depression, but he had a gambling problem.” He gambled the family’s last manufacturing plant away, and they went from wealth to nothing.

“And so it’s a mindset that she inherited from somebody else’s life.”

The ending? She didn’t sell her business, and the relationship she’d been unsure about ended in marriage. As Lisa puts it: “We don’t have to hold onto them, onto these things.”

Why Mind Over Matter Isn’t Enough

“If mind over matter, and it was only mental, then people would be able to let go of addictions.”

I agree. Motivation comes and goes, and I think we need to go deeper than discipline. When we change who we are at the level of identity, the right actions become easier, because they’re just who we are. That’s what I mean by reprogramming your subconscious mind.

Procrastination Isn’t Laziness

“Oftentimes procrastination happens when deep down people don’t feel worthy of more.”

Lisa sees it often in people who leave a structured job to go out on their own: “there’s nobody to report to… there’s no framework.” And sometimes busyness is its own hiding place: “For busy people, we stay busy so we don’t have to feel.”

Key Lessons From Lisa Thomas

• Some of your fears and patterns may have started long before you.
• Inheriting a pattern doesn’t mean it has to stay switched on.
• Willpower alone rarely shifts a deep pattern. Work at the level of identity.
• Procrastination is often about worth, not laziness.
• “Purpose comes when you start saying yes to things.”

Ready to Reprogram Your Mind?

You can’t choose the patterns you were handed, but you can choose what you do with them. That’s exactly what we work on in Reprogram Your Mind, my community on Skool, with an AI coaching app to keep you on track.

Watch Lisa’s full episode above, and find her audios and content at lisathomasglobal.com.