EFT Case Story: An Autogenic Christmas Memory

Helena writes: I chose to do this Assignment with this particular practice partner as she always says that she has no childhood memories and prefers to concentrate on the "here and now". My objective in doing this was that since this was supposed to be a "happy childhood memory from a young age," my practice partner would be more inclined to make the effort to remember or at least try to recall one happy memory.

I called her a day in advance to tell her to pick a happy childhood memory that we could use, just so she'd have enough time to find one.

Her response was "I really don't have any childhood memories." I told her to just play with the idea that she'd perhaps have one for us to observe the next day and left it at that.

I was pleasantly surprised when we met the next day and she said: "I have a pleasant memory of a Christmas when I was 9 years old." After a few initial difficulties, she was able to observe the aspect and relate what was going on in the aspect some 50 years ago!

Autogenic memory:

"It was Christmas day, after breakfast. The aspect was in the sitting room with the whole family. It was a warm day and the door to the sitting room was open to let in some fresh air. The room was filled with furniture made out of teak wood. There was a table in the corner filled with cakes, cookies and tarts. A Christmas tree, decorated with very bright lights, Christmas crackers to pull and lots of Christmas decorations stood near the front door, which was open. Presents were arranged underneath the Christmas tree.

The sun is shining outside and the aspect can see children playing in the garden in the house opposite. Aromas of cooking from the neighbourhood comes into the house. The aspect loves this smell as it is the smell of Christmas: Roast turkey, roast beef mingled with the smell of ham boiled in beer with cloves stuck in it. The smell of food fills the air. The aspect describes it as "the smell of happiness."

The aspect and her family are gathered around the Christmas tree. They are all dressed in new clothing and are very excited to receive their Christmas presents. The aspect's mother walks towards the Christmas tree, picks out a present and hands it to her brother, who is the eldest. Then she hands out a present to the aspect and her younger sisters.

The aspect is opening her Christmas present and takes out a doll, dressed in a white bridal gown. She is not aware that her doll is dressed as a bride. She begins to cuddle it and coo to it, and finally sings to it. She is elated with her present. The aspect's brother receives a train set, a younger sister a tea set for dolls, and another younger sister, a doll dressed in a blue gown. They are all very happy with their presents. This makes the aspect's parents very happy too. The aspect notices that there is a background scent of meat roasting in the oven. The scent seems to get stronger and the aspect is very excited at the thought of having roast turkey for lunch. Turkey is cooked only during Christmas. Her mouth begins to water. She is hungry as she was too excited to finish her breakfast. The feeling in the sitting room is one of great excitement and happiness among the children and the parents.

What is new to the practice partner is that the aspect had completely forgotten about how Christmas was spent in the family when she was young. This memory means a lot to her as she has not celebrated Christmas for more than 20 years. This exercise brought back a spark in her life as she witnessed the excitement, the liveliness, the happiness that the aspect felt that Christmas day, some 50 years ago. But it also got her in touch with the feeling of "togetherness" in the family, which she describes as "such a beautiful experience".

Excellent. And an excellent example how intense and autogenic memories can become with just a little encouragement, as well as what a resource positive memories represent to the person now - if they are connected to those aspects. 

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