The Limbic Imprint: Creating Emotional Health In Our Children

Look around. What do you see? Do you see a population of unhappy, addicted people…people addicted to food, to sugar, to alcohol, to drugs (prescribed or un-prescribed), to shopping, to praise and approval, to entertainment…to everything outside of themselves? Do you notice that authentically happy, well-adjusted people are alarmingly few and far between? How could this be? Why does happiness seem to be a goal we are constantly striving for rather than an intrinsic quality of our being?

The answer may lie in a little known and rarely discussed phenomenon called Limbic Imprinting – the imprinting of the emotional area of the brain during our formative period (in the womb, during our birth and early childhood). Over the last 25 years, pioneers in the field of pre- and perinatal psychology have repeatedly demonstrated that accepted and standard practices during pregnancy, childbirth, in the home and in the schools are having catastrophic consequences on our children and on society as a whole.

The good news is that the solution lies with you and that you are able to facilitate a different outcome for your children. It starts with putting consciousness back into pregnancy and parenting and recognizing the experiences that we have during our earliest experiences of life directly shape our emotional health and our ability to see and know our true selves.

Elena Tonetti-Vladimirova, who travels the globe conducting Limbic Imprint Re- coding ‘birthshops’, and the director of the powerful film “Birth As We Know It”, tells us “the quality of life is defined by the quality of birth”. These are some powerful words! Considering that 95% of the births in the United States are considered to be traumatic, 45% of which are severely traumatic, this does not bode well for future generations if left unchecked. She also
states:

“…if our early impressions are anything less than loving, then that ‘anything’ imprints in our nervous system as a valid experience of love, regardless of how those experiences might have been. And throughout our life, we will subconsciously recreate the conditions and feelings that were imprinted at birth and early childhood, because in spite of all logic, those experiences are our comfort zone.”

It’s time for us to realize that pregnancy and childbirth are sacred events in our lives and they are to be treated as such with preparation, nourishment and conscious connection with that new life.

While pregnant, a woman is eating, thinking, feeling and emoting for two. Just before and after birth, a human is more open and sensitive than they will ever be as an adult. Unnecessary interventions such as early clamping and cutting of the umbilical cord, separation from the mother, unconscious cutting of the foreskin and avoidable poking and prodding are all recorded into the limbic system, permanently (unless subsequently re-imprinted), as what is to be expected
of this world – harsh treatment, violence and pain. Later in life, feelings of fear, hostility, anger and of “wrong-ness” may not be logical as analyzed through the thinking brain, or cortex, but that won’t make them any less real or limiting.

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself why you are afraid to speak in public? Why you feel you aren’t “good enough”? Why you keep sabotaging your relationships or your success? Why you lack the confidence to move forward in your life? Why do we spend so much time dealing with our “stuff” by going to countless self-development seminars, reading countless self-help books and listening to countless motivational speakers? Why is there so much to “fix”?

Your limbic imprint may be unconsciously destroying any chance of you achieving your dreams. We constantly attract circumstances and events in our lives that resonate with our limbic imprint, and if our beginnings were less than blissful, this will be reflected in the state of our lives. The good news is, as Dr. Bruce Lipton tells us, consciousness can rewrite these limiting beliefs, although it takes the awareness and tools to do so. Hmmm…sounds like a whole lot of work…

Now wouldn’t life be a whole lot rosier and easier if there was nothing to “fix” in the first place? What if the limbic imprint was based on nothing but love? What would this world look like if our children grew up in a world where they knew that they were supported, heard and loved, no matter what? What would life be like if each fetus lived in the womb of a mother who was fully supported, well nourished, stress-free and consciously connecting with her baby throughout her pregnancy? What would children be like if they came through the birth canal under peaceful, loving conditions, where there was complete trust in the wisdom of the female body to bring forth new life? How confident would our children be if they were given the breast immediately upon arrival into this new world, were held close to their mothers or fathers for the first year of their lives, and slept securely with their parents every night with no need to cry out for nourishment or comfort? My guess is that we would see the world transformed into one where superheroes
walked the earth!! I see peace and love being the norm, intelligence levels sky-rocketing and abundant health. It really is within reach and it need not take long. But it does depend on us. Our babies do depend on us, and as such, we must respond to them on their terms, not ours. We must keep them close and we must trust our children as they grow.

In one simple generation, if we choose peace over drama, love over fear, allowing versus resisting, confidence in our innate abilities over mindlessly giving our power to surgeons, doctors and other so-called ‘experts’, we will see humanity transform. We must start by looking within and be willing to heal. By healing ourselves, we heal our children and we heal the earth.

The result could be no other and our continued evolution on this planet depends on it.

Resources for further information:

www.birthpsychology.com

www.birthintobeing.com

www.brucelipton.com

Sascha Kalivoda is a holistic nutritionist and the creator of “Your Conscious Pregnancy and Parenting Guide”, an online program devoted to the education around raising healthy, confident, well-adjusted children. Her program brings together information from world-renowned experts in the fields of biology, nutrition, herbology, conception, childbirth, parenting, learning and more. For more information pleasevisit http://bit.ly/kidsneedu.