Childhood is an extraordinary part of a person’s life. It is the time in life when we learn from our surroundings the most. It is also the time in life when we feel sensations the most. All the things we see, hear, and feel during childhood have long-lasting impressions on us and affect us as we grow older; in fact, the things from our childhood have more of an effect on our lives as adults than we probably realize.
Most people don’t even realize this. Much of the time, people feel as though their past is behind them, but the reality is different. It is the peculiarity of the human experience to tap into our early years and recognize how they shape and affect how we think, feel, and behave today.
Read more: How Do Some People Connect with the Future?
The First Lessons Start Early
We learn a lot before we ever actually step foot into a school. We pick up on how people communicate. Also, we learn how to express love, affection, anger, hate, and frustration. Our experiences shape our learned habits and behaviors.
If we witness kindness in our home, we learn to be kind. If we observe screaming or fear, or ignorance, we can learn to express those feelings too. Our brain records all of this.
Family Love is Inner Strength
Love is the first feeling we look for in our infancy and childhood. Children need hugs, smiles, and soft voices. These simple gestures help children to feel comfortable and loved, and achieve inner peace. Love and affection also build confidence.
When a family shows love, children feel safe, and they trust other children and adults more easily. They find happiness from the depths of their soul. This strong love and sense of satisfaction help to create strong adults.
Lack of love leaves fear.
However, not all children receive love and care. Some children receive anger, silence, or more troubling experiences, and this changes how the children feel about their world.
Children may develop an understanding that they are not good enough. They may develop a fear of others.
Experiences in our younger years mold our self-esteem.
As children, experiences either help develop a positive self-view or a negative self-view later in life. If we are mostly positively treated and receive encouragement and praise, it is very easy to be self-confident. If our experience was mostly negative in that we had no encouragement and received mainly disapproval, we have self-doubt.
Those messages can be as simple as “You can do it” and “I believe in you.” Those positive messages are held in our hearts. Those are the messages that help us not to lose it and have the courage to step into the unknown as adults.
Psychology: The mind creates lifelong memories with childhood experiences.
Psychologists state that the mind creates meaningful memories in childhood and forms beliefs about our world through our experiences in childhood. These beliefs are our core beliefs because they are thoughts we carry with us deep down inside, and they help us build what we feel about ourselves and others.
For example, if a child hears someone say to them, “You are smart”, they will believe in their ability to have success moving forward in life. If a child hears someone say, “You will fail every time”, they will become afraid to even try. The mind will hold on to those messages and will use them to create its future.
Trust Is Learned Early
Trust is another emotion that we learn early in life. When adults keep commitments, children trust. When adults lie or withdraw, children feel fear.
In adulthood, we carry trust. Some people find it easy to trust other people. Some people find it extremely difficult. It all begins in early childhood.
Handling Feelings Begins At Home
Children do not know how to manage their feelings. They need support from adults. When parents are calm, children are calm.
When adults yell or hit, children learn fear. They model that behavior. As adults, they will struggle to manage their anger, sadness, or fear. Thinking about how to control emotions begins in childhood.
Psychology: The Inner Child lives in Adults
We need to understand that humans will always carry their inner child within them. Psychologists understand that children hold all initial feelings in their inner child. A strong emotional response can often signal that the inner child is involved.
Helping children heal feels like the inner child helps adults grow. Many modern therapists are teaching people to speak kindly to their past selves to cultivate a sense of inner peace or self-love. Childhood never leaves us; we still have it inside us.
So, Experience in Schooling Counts
Keep in mind that school was a second home, and those adults were the teachers. A compassionate teacher can change a child’s life, while a cruel or cold teacher can strip a child of their confidence. Children will carry memories of school into adulthood. Some children are born with a love of learning, while others have a fear of it. Every encouragement given at school helps build a safe and secure child’s resiliency. Many children build that learning resiliency into adulthood.
Childhood Trauma Impacts the Body
Some children experience violence, loss, and fear, which traumatizes their bodies and minds. A child may experience unexplained exhaustion, nonsensical fear, and muscle tension.
Many years later, as adults, their lives may be filled with anxiety, sadness, and physical pain. Trauma has a heavy and lasting impact. However, with time, care, and love, we can move on.
The Influence of Positive Childhood Experiences = Better Relationships
If a child has experiences of love, they will build relationships with the people they love. They will care, communicate well, and listen to the people they love. They will respect boundaries and act honestly.
Healing When Faced With a Difficult Childhood
Not every life season deals with children doing difficult things. Some people have painful, sad childhood stories, but healing is entirely possible, and healing always begins with small actions.
Speaking about feelings, writing about feelings, and being kinder to oneself can each begin the healing process. Healing takes time. Healing brings peace and calmness.
Your Past Is Not Your Future
Childhood influences us, but it does not determine our destiny. You can grow. You can change. Also, you can learn to think and feel differently.
You can forgive, you can move on, and build better habits. You are not a prisoner of your past. Hence, you are still writing your story.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, if childhood sets the framework for thought, feeling, and behaviour, then the things we see, hear, and experience in childhood create imprints, deep inside us, that can last, if not for the whole life, a very long time.
Psychology helps us understand how early childhood affects our way of thinking and emotions, and also helps us to understand that we can develop and change ourselves, we are certainly not helpless, and we can and do heal.
So, be gentle with your inner child, by healing your old wounds, by talking with yourself gently, and if you have a child, express love to them and show your development, you are laying the foundation for their adulthood.
