Forgotten Childhood Memories

When we look back over our childhood years there are so many good, indifferent and not so good memories for all of us. Of course, the level of how intense these memories are vary from person to person. This in turn dictates how we react to our memories, and how long they stay with us.

Sometimes, if the memories are too uncomfortable our subconscious mind goes into protector mode and blocks them out. However, we are almost always left with the emotions associated with the memories, and then can’t understand why we react to certain people or events similar to those that created the emotions in the first place.

This was the case with G. She presented in my clinic as a gorgeous, confident young lady in her mid twenties. She had studied, travelled the world, had lots of global friends and a loving family.

All in her life seemed to be wonderful…… except for her anger. She flew off the handle at the slightest thing, with her mother bearing the brunt of most of it.

In hypnosis we focused on where the feeling of anger was coming from, and after a little while the anger turned to frustration. So we went to what created the frustration. The frustration in turn became guilt.

We stayed with the feeling of guilt until we were sure that this was the initiating emotion. G sat with this for a while, and was then amazed as a memory of her at school in Grade 2 popped up. She had unintentionally hurt her friend’s finger and was now beside herself as her best friend cried in pain and her teacher was telling her off.

G tried to explain that it was an accident, she didn’t mean to hurt her friend. Nobody was listening to her. She felt that nobody understood her side, and therefore nobody understood her and how she felt.

This had created a heavy burden of guilt for G that she had carried all these years. The guilt had created frustration in not being listened to and the frustration had created anger in that nobody saw things from her viewpoint.

It also explained why her mother was so heavily targeted by G. She is the female authority figure in her life, which triggered subconscious memories of the other female authority figure in her life that was associated with the anger – her teacher.

When G realised where all the anger stemmed from she was able to understand that it wasn’t part of her life anymore and let it rest in the past where it belonged.

It was a huge relief for G and those around her – particularly her mother!