It is not uncommon for our childhood traumas to have a hold on us throughout our lives.
What most of us don’t realize is that we can transform, change and re-imagine those traumatic times as adults, and find ways to make those moments serve us instead of cripple us.
The important thing to remember is that when those memories were formed, we were but children, seeing the world as a child sees the world.
Since then, we have matured, gained experience and insight that allows us to see the world quite differently. The world we live in as adults is not the world we lived in as children.
So how do we change those memories? We don’t. We change our interpretation of those memories instead.
You see, it is not what we experienced so many years ago that makes such an impact on our lives today, but the meaning we make around it. It is the stories we’ve told ourselves since then about ourselves, about people, and about the world around us that still shapes our world today.
So let’s go back, visualize those experiences, feel what we felt and see what we saw then. Now, let’s look at the meaning we made from those experiences. What different meaning could we make from the experiences instead? What empowering, inspiring meaning can come from those exact same events?
Do they now show us how strong we are? How loved we are? How resilient we are? How much love we have in our hearts that those events did not turn us into a darker person?
When we remake the meaning behind those fundamental experiences we had as young children, we can remake our entire world.
