Kelly talks to Anuradha Dayal-Gulati who, after fifteen years in finance and academia, began a new path of helping people release the past and reclaim their power. Her new book is titled   "Heal Your Ancestral Roots: Release the Family Patterns That Hold You Back."

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There’s a real tension in the book between Western paradigms and Eastern paradigms.

“In Eastern societies, this tension can sometimes be suffocating because you have to conform. And I feel like in America, and maybe as an outsider this is how I see it, but there is so much value placed on independence. But that independence can lead to anxiety and depression and loneliness. So, there is this tension that we're constantly navigating from birth between conforming and our own individuality. And that's the tightrope we have to walk.”

You also talk about the need for ancestral healing. Why?

“In many of these traditions we have this idea that when you don't honor your ancestors, they hold you captive. You repeat the fate of your ancestors. They act as a ceiling on your life. So why would that be the case? It's because when you think of the ancestral lineage there is something unresolved in that lineage. And so, as descendants, we take on pieces of what is unresolved and we take on the responsibility of healing, that because when we heal it, we heal ourselves.”

You had a health scare and traditional western medicine wasn’t working and that’s what led you down this path, right?

“I started to explore alternative methods of healing. And I found this amazing Chinese doctor and I discovered flower essences and those two things together, they saved my health, and they really changed my life. And I think what I realized most from that incident was that hope is such an important ingredient in our lives. Hope is so valuable and that's really what led me to do what I do today. Because I want people to recognize, to realize that you can change the trajectory of your life. You can create change. You can create a much more rewarding and fulfilling life. You are never powerless.”

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Photo credit: Heidi Hapanowicz