FAQ: Why Should I Revisit Old Memories?

It’s a common response when I talk about hypnotherapy as a form of healing…

Why would anyone want to dredge up painful past memories? Why open Pandora’s Box?

The answer is simple…Those old memories or events aren’t really lying dormant somewhere in your mind. They may be affecting you more than you realize.

Have you ever had a tiny splinter in the bottom of your foot that hurts with every step, but when you try to remove it you can’t find it or feel it with your finger? You don’t feel anything when you look for it, but when you stand up and walk again, it pierces the sole of your foot.

Old memories can be the same way. They’re seemingly gone, but they keep hurting you.

Your present-day fears, anxiety, bad habits, self-sabotaging behavior, insomnia, gut issues, headaches, body pain, low self-esteem, or relationship issues are sometimes linked to limiting beliefs formed when you were a child, or even in a past life.

And just like that splinter, they may be tiny.

It’s easy to see how significant trauma, abuse, or tragedy leaves deep scars, but most of us have limiting beliefs formed by far less obvious hurt.

A teacher or coach embarrassing you in front of your peers, a parent’s off-hand remark about your disappointing behavior, childhood bullies making fun of you…scenarios like these can plant beliefs in young minds that fester and become infectious in your subconscious— long after you forgot about the original cause.

Hypnotherapy allows you to go back to the child you, to the origin of those limiting beliefs, and address them with the mature perspective of adult you. You’re taking a magnifying glass to your foot, finding the splinter, and pulling it out, freeing yourself from the source of your pain.