According to Dr. Morris Massey, a developmental psychologist – the majority of the beliefs, behaviours, habits and values we run as adults were actually generated during the imprint period of life between the ages of 0-7 years.

There is a very good chance that some of your anger, anxiety, self doubt, optimistic viewpoint, resilience and strength were influences by childhood experiences.  We learn from those around us – so it make sense that some aspects of us would be based on our past. But, does that mean we are stuck with these aspects of ourselves for the rest of our lives.

Luckily, no.  And NLP can be a wonderful way to change old childhood patterns that may not be serving you now.

Recently, we worked with a young man who had a love/hate relationship with money. He loved it because it provided him with a lifestyle and things within that lifestyle, but he hated it because he never had enough.

NLP will teach you how to have more insight into how people (including yourself) think, respond and behave. With this understanding, you can apply various techniques that will help to uncover beliefs, strategies and unconscious patterns that were developed in childhood (or elsewhere for that matter!)

With our client who had a love/hate relationship with money, we utilized an NLP process that includes access to your timeline of history and events which have contributed to who you are today. This gentleman found a memory of being young, like 3 years old when he was given $2 for candy at the shop and he overheard someone saying “you can’t give him any money, he spends it instantly” – and that began a pattern he lived with for another 30+ years!

Think about that for a moment. He overheard someone talking to someone and made a decision about that being his pattern. A few things here – 1) they may not have been talking about him specifically!, 2) he was given money to spend on candy, not to save! And 3) he was a tiny boy!!

An NLP presupposition that we often filter through is you are doing the best you can with the resources you have available, and at 3 years old, he definitely was doing the best he could! With this NLP technique we were able to detach from a few old beliefs that he can’t save money, have money and always spends it as soon as he gets it.

Consider for a moment the possibility of changing childhood patterns. And, being able to do this by empowering yourself to be more resourceful and in control over your life and how you perceive the past. What patterns would you change?

As one of the founders of NLP Richard Bandler says, “When using NLP it’s never too late to have a happy childhood”.