Rewriting Your Childhood: A Path to Empowerment and Healing
Do you have a memory that when you think about it, that memory seems to define your entire childhood?
Today we’re going to be talking about rewriting your childhood. This is a subject that I personally find fascinating and very useful in working with people.
I believe that I use this with virtually every person that I work with. And the reason is because it can lead to such rapid results in helping people to overcome their self-imposed limitations that they often aren’t even aware that started in early childhood.
This is because our childhoods shape who we are and how we interact with the world, but that doesn’t mean we’re stuck with the narrative we’ve been given. In fact, rewriting your childhood can be a powerful way to heal from past hurts, and to create a more fulfilling future.
Understanding the Concept of Rewriting Your Childhood
First, it’s important to understand that rewriting your childhood doesn’t mean denying or erasing your past. It’s about acknowledging and accepting the events that have shaped you, while also recognizing that the part of you that is still holding on to the hurts from your past is no longer the same part of you that exists in the world today.
Another important aspect of rewriting your childhood is to recognize that when we experience intense emotional experiences we are locked into that one perspective of the event. And so we’re usually not capable of seeing the event from any other perspective, other than the time and age of who we were when the event happened.
Overcoming Self-Imposed Limitations
In working with clients I’ll often hear them mention some event from their past that seems to suggest that because of this event that happened to them, it now means that this is the reason for how they are in life today.
And to make matters even worse, the underlying message that they’re telling themselves is that because this happened to me, I’m destined to always be this way and nothing can ever permanently take that away.
That’s a heavy burden that many of us carry around.
So how do we rewrite these events from our past?
First let me say that I’m a major proponent of self-help and contemplation. But when it comes to very significant emotional events I strongly recommend reaching out for help. Someone other than yourself is often able to see a different perspective of the event, and that can make all the difference in helping you to create a new narrative for yourself.
The process can be difficult and emotional, but it is possible to create a new story that empowers you.
Example of Rewriting Childhood
Now here I’d like to share an example of how rewriting an event from your past can create a new future outlook for yourself. But before we begin I want to offer a trigger warning.
The following story involves reference to child abuse, and specifically to physical abuse. If you feel that you may become triggered by this story I’ll invite you to turn off the recording now. I’ll also invite you to reach out to me for help so we can address these triggers and release them.
When I think about this topic of rewriting your childhood, I’m reminded of a woman that I once worked with. And yes, this story is being retold with her permission. During her session she told me that she was abused as a child.
In her voice I could hear the decades of hurt that she still carried with her. I could also hear the meaning that she gave to this part of her past and how she allowed this to define who she was in her present.
I asked her if she could expand on what she meant by the word, abuse? How did she mean that?
She told me that her mother would throw her down the stairs to the basement. Again, I could feel the pain of the memory coming to her as if it were happening in the moment.
I asked her if she would literally throw her, or how would she push her down the stairs. She replied that actually her mother would grab her by the arm but didn’t really throw her or push her down.
She went on to explain the circumstances of her growing up to traditional Japanese parents and how her father had been working in the United States for a Japanese company. Her mother was trying to raise her two small children in a traditional Japanese cultural environment. But as a strong-willed young girl, she was not taking to the training that her mother was trying to instill in her.
Out of frustration and desperation, her mother would punish the young girl by sending her to the basement.
By coming to an understanding of her mother, the adult woman was able to let go of the definition she had been carrying of herself as an abused child. And as a result, she was also able to let go of all the meaning of what it meant to be an abused child.
I believe that this one session was able to help her to indeed rewrite her childhood, but more importantly, it helped her to redefine her future.
Creating a Fulfilling Future
As I said earlier, this process can be difficult and emotional, but it’s worth the effort. It is possible to create a new story that empowers you. Rewriting your childhood is not about changing or erasing the past but about understanding it in a new way to create and live a more fulfilling life.
So now let me turn this around and ask you,
Do you have memories from your childhood that have been defining who you are today?
Have you been allowing hurts from your past to affect your relationships, your income earning ability or even your well-being?
And most importantly, are you ready to move beyond past hurts and who you once were?
I believe that you can rewrite your childhood and live a more fulfilling life.
And if you’d like to work one-on-one with me, I’m here to help. You can reach out to me through my website, PatrickRodriguez.com and set up a time for us to work together or sign up for my newsletter so you’ll know when new podcasts are released.
I hope that this has been helpful and insightful.
This has been Patrick Rodriguez.
Thanks for listening.