Why Your First Seven Years Still Shape Your Life

From the moment you were born, you have been programming your brain through every experience you have had. Even if you cannot remember the actual event, the emotional responses are stored for future use, regardless of whether the experience was real or not.

Memory research suggests that memory is reconstructive rather than a perfect recording of events. Each time we recall an experience, the memory can be subtly reshaped by later experiences, emotions and beliefs. This means our recollections may feel completely real while still containing inaccuracies.

This is how many people can be stuck in a negative habit loop based on memories that have not actually happened! The brain also cannot always distinguish between real and imagined, nor can it, at first, easily tell the difference between what is safe and what is a threat.

Take the fear of spiders - a common phobia in the UK. Realistically, there are no deadly spiders in the UK, and spider bites are extremely rare. Yet many people are terrified of them.

Why? This is likely because, at some point, they saw a parent or peer react fearfully to a spider. That reaction created an emotional imprint, and they have adopted the same fear - even though a spider has never harmed them. This is a classic case of learned behaviour and an irrational fear that has now been stored in the brain.

Furthermore, the chemical Adrenaline (fight-or-flight) is released whenever they see a spider and every time this happens; it reinforces the experience in the brain repeatedly - until the pattern is intentionally broken.

Many of our irrational imprints are formed before the age of six, as during that time, the brain operates primarily in theta waves - a deeply receptive state ideal for unconscious learning and programming.

This is when we form core beliefs about ourselves and the world - like "I am not good enough" or "I am only loved when I perform". These beliefs can stick into adulthood as 'irrational imprints' or 'emotional triggers', even if we are unaware of them.

Around the age of seven, the brain shifts out of the dominant theta wave state and starts operating more in alpha and beta brainwaves. This transition marks a move from subconscious absorption to more conscious thinking, logic, and reasoning. We begin to develop a stronger sense of self-awareness, critical thinking, and the ability to analyse information rather than absorb it. This is also when the conscious mind becomes more active, and learning becomes more intentional rather than purely experiential. In short, the brain starts functioning more like an adult's - still growing, but now with more conscious control and mental structure.

As the brain develops into adulthood, it moves into a more stable pattern of beta wave dominance, which supports focused attention, problem-solving, decision-making, and goal-oriented thinking. During adolescence, the prefrontal cortex - the part responsible for reasoning, impulse control, and planning - continues to mature. This process is not fully complete until the mid-20s, which is why teens often act on emotion or impulse.

Over time, repeated thoughts, emotional responses, and behaviours become deeply wired into the brain, forming automatic patterns the mind relies on for efficiency.

By adulthood, many behaviours become increasingly automatic through repetition and habit. Some authors have suggested that a large proportion of daily behaviour occurs with limited conscious awareness, highlighting the importance of intentional reflection when creating lasting change.

People tend to wake up, think the same thoughts, feel the same emotions, and repeat the same routines-essentially reliving their past each day. While the brain is still capable of change, transformation requires intentional effort by this age.

Rewiring these ingrained patterns involves conscious awareness, new habits, and consistent practice, but the good news is that lasting change is entirely possible with effort. We can rewire habits, change beliefs, and reshape our emotional responses at any age.

One way of understanding manifestation from a psychological perspective is that it combines intention, emotional engagement, focused attention and purposeful action. Rather than replacing practical effort, these processes may influence how we notice opportunities, make decisions and sustain behaviour over time..

The first step to change is deciding to do so and creating meaningful intentions.

The second step is evoking emotions related to those intentions. When you do this, you are programming the Reticular Activating System (RAS) to start noticing related opportunities, synchronises, co-incidences, and patterns. The RAS is a network of neurons in the brain stem. The brain's filter decides what gets your attention and what fades into the background, and you can program it to work for you. For example, if you focus on abundance, you will see more opportunities for success. If you focus on limitations, the RAS will highlight obstacles instead.

For example, whenever you have bought a new car, You will have gone through a process of looking for one logical process, probably weighing up the pros and cons. But at some point, you made a decision and attached emotion to it. You may even compromise on one of your desired feature lists. But at this point that you attached emotion, your RAS understood that these thoughts you were having were important - and guess what - you started to see lots of the make and model of the car you had chosen on the road around you!

This is exactly how the emotional part of manifesting works. Those cars have always been there - the natural flow of energy puts them there every day; you just do not see them. But once you had set a meaningful intention to buy a new car AND attached emotion to it, the RAS started to point them out to you.

"Manifestation is not just about wishful thinking. It is deeply connected to how the brain processes thoughts, beliefs, and emotions to shape reality. The brain plays a key role in visualisation, focus, belief systems, and action-taking, all of which influence manifestation." Teanna

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