Why Do We Keep Ending Up in the Same Situations and What Can We Do About It? The “Reimprinting” Technique

Everyone has certain situations they find themselves in over and over again. Don’t be quick to say, “That’s not about me”—read on, and then decide. At the core of recurring situations in our lives and our unconscious life scripts are what are called imprints.

Imprint is an emotional stamp on a person’s psyche—a state that becomes a basic pattern throughout life. It makes sense to get rid of imprints, especially negative ones, because they determine your actions, thoughts, and reactions to the world around you. In other words, they create the scripts of your life, which then shape your destiny—and not always in a good way.

How It Works

Our unconscious works in such a way that, after experiencing a strong emotion, it forms a belief about reality and seeks to relive that emotion again and again to confirm the truth of that belief. You might wonder: why confirm negative beliefs? Here, our unconscious plays a trick on us, driven by its basic need for safety. Its logic is simple: if the belief is true, then I know the world and how to exist in it—even if the world is terrible, at least I’m prepared.

Usually, we don’t notice that we’re under the influence of dozens, if not thousands, of imprints that have formed the core of our beliefs about the world and ourselves (or rather, our ego).

However, we are capable of noticing, analyzing, and changing our imprints. To do this, it’s enough to develop self-awareness and regularly ask yourself questions like: “What’s my story? What am I feeling right now? What metaphor describes what’s happening to me? And the main question—do I often feel and think the same things?” If the answer is yes, congratulations: there’s likely an imprint at the root of those feelings.

Do you feel like a loner in life? Like people don’t hear what you say? That no one appreciates your efforts? That you’re always struggling against circumstances? Maybe your friends betray you? Or, as if by bad luck, every boss tries to pile extra work on you? All these feelings are rooted in imprints.

Another Way to Recognize Your Imprints: Analyze Your Desires

An excessive need for something often points to a traumatic history of lacking that very thing—a negative imprint. So, if you desperately crave love, your imprint and hidden belief may be that love doesn’t exist in the world, and you risk living out that scenario. If you’re obsessed with recognition, it’s likely rooted in an imprint of feeling worthless. Consciously, a person may try to avoid these emotions, but unconsciously, they keep recreating them in life.

This is why a wounded need keeps getting wounded, and any satisfaction is only temporary. That’s why the saying goes: if we approach the world “with an outstretched hand” hoping to get something, the world takes away even more of what we’re asking for.

Once we heal the trauma behind our need and it loses its urgency, we usually receive what we always wanted naturally. The causes of wounded needs and imprints usually lie in childhood, but not always. Traumatic emotional experiences can also be inherited from parents, even if a child was raised by adoptive parents. This is how family and ancestral scripts are born.

There are many ways to work with such situations. One of them is the “Reimprinting” technique, described below.

The “Reimprinting” Technique

Note: This version of the technique may differ in some details from classic descriptions you can find online.

Step-by-Step Description

1. What’s your story? What events, circumstances, or states do you regularly experience? Describe them with a metaphor—what does it feel like? Write it down briefly (so you can compare changes later).
2. How often do you feel this way? In what other events or situations does the same metaphor show up?
3. On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you believe the belief behind this is true?
4. Recall and imagine the last or most vivid situation when you experienced this metaphor.
5. Track your thoughts, emotions, bodily sensations, and impulses in detail.
6. Imagine that, while in this situation, you’re standing on your life line. This line might look different to everyone: a line, a road, a corridor… It can be any color or size. Let your unconscious draw its image.
7. Now imagine you split in two, step off your life line, and look at yourself in that situation from the outside.
8. Start moving backward along your life line, aiming to find the situation that was the starting point for the scenario’s metaphor. Walk beside the life line, not on it. You might not immediately remember the situation, but you’ll feel a place where you want to stop.
9. When you find this place, stop and let your unconscious paint a picture of what’s happening there. Ask yourself: how old do you feel there? What do you see? What do you feel? What’s happening? If it’s hard to see or feel, ask yourself what seems to be happening, as if you knew, as if your feelings could tell you what this situation is about.
10. Now check if this moment is truly key. Ask yourself: Did you feel these emotions before this moment, or was everything still okay a few minutes earlier? If you did feel them before, go further back and find an earlier moment, then check it the same way.
11. If you’ve found the key moment, ask yourself who else was involved in this situation. Did anyone else benefit from what was happening to you? Was someone else to blame? Or is this situation only about you and your perception?
12. Observe the feelings you and any other participants experienced in this situation. Do a “recognition” of feelings and desires for each participant and for yourself. Notice any changes in sensations. Repeat the “recognition” technique as needed.
13. Add resources to yourself and other participants—whatever is needed to live through the situation differently or even avoid it altogether. Ask your unconscious what sensations, states, or knowledge were missing for you and the others, and mentally send them images of these resources.
14. Mentally step into your image on the life line. Notice how your state, perception, or even the situation itself has changed. Experience the new feeling that wasn’t there before. Acknowledge the new resource.
15. In this new state, start moving forward along your life line, this time walking on it, and observe how your attitude and perception of other events change as a result.
16. Reach the present moment and check your state. How relevant is the original metaphor of feelings you started with? On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you believe your old negative belief now? What do you think about what happened?

If your feelings have changed little or not at all, it means you haven’t reached the key situation yet—it may be even earlier, at the moment of your birth, or it may be an ancestral issue passed down from your parents. Unfortunately, if that’s the case, you may need deeper regression therapy, which can’t be fully described here. In that case, it’s best to seek individual consultation.