Richard Bandler, co-creator of NLP, once said, “It’s never too late to have a happy childhood.”
At the time he said this back in the 1970s it was quite controversial and caused an uproar. But now that we have learned more about the brain and how it works, this statement can be better understood.
You can’t change the past (unless you have a time machine you’re not telling anyone about). It happened. It is a fact. And, now, it is forever in our memory. The thing is, our memories aren’t factual and they aren’t fixed. Have you ever noticed talking about a certain memory with someone, yet you both recall it happening very differently?
Memory isn’t like replaying a VHS (Woah, what the heck is that, old man?) tape. It is more like bits and pieces of it are stored in different boxes and our mind has to hunt for them. Once it has found some of them, it begins to piece them together and will make up things when it can’t find the information it needs.
Memory is stored in the brain a different way for each of us, based on the emotions at the time of the event and the meanings we give to it all at the time it happens. Then, every time we bring up a memory, there is the potential to change it. Then we put it back in the memory bank changed. So, we can recall, change, put it back, recall that, change it, put it back, wash, rinse, repeat, until the new memory is nothing like the actual event.
We can’t actually change what happened to us, but we can change the emotions that we have attached to it. When we learn how to do this, they become events that happened but no longer trigger those negative emotions.
Memory and emotion are the two in charge. Our present consciousness is built from the blocks of our memory. Everything happening now in our head is loaded with meaning and emotions from the past.
The Good News: Memories are malleable. Emotions can be changed.
Hypnosis and NLP are two tools that can help you make those changes.