Learning Spiritual Behaviours as a Means to Reverse Harmful Epigenetic Changes Resulting from Domestic Violence

1. The Epigenetic Effects of Stress The term “epigenetic” refers to an effect or condition that arises from non-genetic influences on gene expression. Those influences can include environmental conditions, stress, a person’s emotional state, or physical trauma. Specifically, these effects are heritable, but that heritability does not occur through the normal mechanisms by which genotypes are passed from one generation to the next--hence the prefix "epi-" which means "on, upon, or above.”