You may not be aware that many of your emotions are not related to the present moment and can affect your success. We have two kind of emotions: those from the present moment and those from the past. When you feel an emotion do you know where it comes from?
You can decide if emotions from the past are still affecting you. Is there an emotion from childhood you are still holding onto? This can be a positive emotion such as a great vacation with your family or winning an award. Or this can be an unpleasant emotion such as an embarrassing moment at school or being called a hurtful name. Many unpleasant emotions are not the result of a trauma yet they continue to affect your life and your success.
Eleven surprising factors from childhood that can affect your success
- Adults arguing around a child
- A loss such as a grandparent dies
- An indifferent care giver – not feeling nurtured
- Moving often or changing schools
- Embarrassments
- Being teased or bullied
- Feeling confused
- Negative comments such as “You can’t do anything right” or “You’re stupid”
- Feeling rules are unfair
- Not being allowed to speak up
- Feeling abandoned when a loved one leaves you
These incidents are unpleasant and they happen all too often. When events like these happen, the child cannot react by taking action. If a child experiences an unpleasant event and cannot feel the emotion, take action, and release it in the moment that emotion can become stuck in the mind and the body.
Are you haunted by painful memories?
Sometimes you have a memory that haunts you. You may remember your parents arguing and how worried and unsafe you felt. You might remember a pet running away and not being allowed to grieve. Sometimes you have no memory of the event. Events that happen between birth and 4 or 5 years old often do not have a cognitive memory – only an emotional memory.
The emotional memory is created when neuropeptides attach to the cells in your body. Your brain produces neuropeptides and they flow through out the body informing your cells of your emotional state.
Your cells have not forgotten
If your cells could not release an emotion, they continue to act as if you are still experiencing the past event even though it took place long ago. If you felt fear or sadness or anger, your cells are still reacting to that long ago event. Emotions from the past continue to create stress in your body. Your body never forgets and these memories can affect your success in many ways.
(Image: Pink Sherbert Photography @ Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/1165149664/)
