"It is never too late for a joyful childhood."
James McPartland
We are each powerfully influenced by our experiences as children, as this early stage of existence sets the direction for our lives. Research shows that by the time we are somewhere between the ages of 6 and 8, we have unconsciously designed the course of our own future. In other words, when we evaluate our lives, a great many of us come to realize that we have been taking instructions from a 6 year old.
After the carefree infant to toddler (and then to early childhood) period, when we engage life without fear, we suddenly are forced to learn that there is right and wrong, good and bad. The impact of specific events teach us that we must protect ourselves from the wrong and the bad. This learning can cause us to memorize the unhealthy, unhappy or painful points from our past. While this may have been an attempt to protect us in the future, these memorized experiences generate an early warning system. One could say that we project our past into the future. Until we realize this, we continue to see the past repeat and thus further deepen our unhappy memories.
The good news is that at any point in time we can rewrite our future by re-creating our past. If we look close enough we can find many happy memories, playful moments, truly meaningful events and a joyful childhood that we may have forgotten existed. We can choose a new view -create a joyous set of memories- of our life as little people. Further, we can project that past happiness into our future. Fortunately, we already know how to put our past into our future and get more of the same. We are simply changing the ingredients inside the formula to create a more inspiring future - one based on our new past.
