NLP Technique “Changing Personal History”: Rewriting the Past

For many people, NLP techniques like “Changing Personal History” are a revelation—and sometimes even a lifesaver. Why? Because there are events in life that we wish had never happened. After such events, we spend years healing psychological wounds, suffering from complexes, resentments, and phobias. These experiences shape our personalities and influence our choices, often preventing us from becoming who we want and can be. And yet, almost everyone has such events in their life. Just look around and see for yourself.

Times are changing, and our self-awareness is growing. We dramatize and dwell on our problems less and focus more on finding solutions. We look for patterns in what happens to us and ways to influence them; we dig up the roots of our complexes and the causes of recurring failures. If we try hard enough, we find them.

But sometimes, that’s where it ends. What next? Many people simply don’t know. The trauma or problem is recognized, but not resolved. This is where NLP technology can help.

Why and How Does This Work?

In short, here’s why this is possible and how it works. Many of you have probably heard that a significant portion of our memories are false. This is due to the incredible plasticity of our brains: in the hippocampus, the area responsible for forming memories, new neural connections are constantly being made. Every time you recall something, you literally reconstruct it, adding or changing details. This isn’t just psychology—it’s neuroscience.

When we remember something, we almost never reproduce the actual event; we invent it. This means that any traumatic event can be rewritten, allowing you to free yourself from its negative impact on your life.

Important Note!

If you have not been trained in NLP practices, have never performed NLP techniques, and are not under the supervision of a professional, do not use this technique to work through traumas related to physical violence or the loss of loved ones. Choose something lighter; the technique works best with situations that happened before you were 12 years old.

You can work on:

• Recurring negative situations or persistent failures
• Childhood resentments and unsuccessful experiences
• Harmful suggestions and beliefs from others (e.g., “You’ll never make money,” “Family means routine and cheating,” “Life ends after 40,” etc.)

Conditions for Using the “Changing Personal History” Technique

• Complete privacy
• Physical and mental comfort
• Enough free time and space (can be done indoors or outdoors)

This NLP technique works like hypnosis with elements of trance, so visualize everything as clearly as possible to set the right programs for your subconscious. Let’s begin!

How to Do the NLP “Changing Personal History” Technique on Your Own

Find a comfortable, private place to do this exercise.

1. Close your eyes. Think about the negative or traumatic situation you want to work on. It may be a recurring issue whose roots you can’t find or break.
2. Imagine a timeline in front of you. Determine which direction (metaphorically) is your past and which is your future. You are in the middle.
3. Stand on the present moment, facing your future. You can physically step onto an imaginary line if you wish.
4. Recall your emotional state during the negative situation you want to address.
5. Intensify this state. You might feel nauseous or want to run away, but don’t stop—try to feel it as deeply as possible.
6. At the peak of this feeling, set an anchor (for example, squeeze your hand or leg in a specific way).
7. Now, start moving back along your timeline, activating the anchor with each step and asking yourself, “Did I feel this a year ago? Five years ago? Ten? Fifteen?” Pay attention to your body’s reactions—they will guide you.
8. When you find the “origin” of this feeling, ask yourself, “What happened … years ago?” Your brain will start searching for the answer, and your cortex will select the most relevant memory.
9. Identify the event your mind brings up and step off the timeline into the observer position. You can mark this spot with a small object like a stone, piece of paper, or pen.
10. As an outside observer, look at that period on the timeline and see yourself at the age when the event happened. Important: you are now dissociated, like a guardian angel watching over that child (or adult) on the timeline.
11. Gradually “step into” yourself on the timeline, as if putting on a costume. Look at your feet, hands, clothes; feel the negative state you experienced then.
12. Dissociate again and look at the timeline. Now, imagine yourself a few months before the event, when you had no idea it was coming.
13. Associate into this earlier point. How are you dressed? What do you feel? What’s your mood? Really feel it.
14. Dissociate again into the observer and step off the timeline. Now you see two versions of yourself: 1) you at the moment of the negative event, and 2) you just before it. Your task is to symbolically give your earlier self any resources that would help them successfully get through the negative situation, so it leaves no post-traumatic effects. These resources could be: confidence, indifference, pride, humor, knowledge or wisdom, energy, acceptance, boldness, beauty, courage, etc.

Any situation we perceive as “negative” or “difficult” feels that way for one reason: we lacked the resources to handle it at the time. No matter how tragic the event, how we experience it depends on whether we have the resources to cope.

What resources were you missing in your situation? Think about it.

15. Once you’ve identified 1-3 resources, start transferring them to yourself. Here’s how:
    • Recall situations where you fully embodied each resource.
    • When you remember, feel it, locate it in your body, give it a color and shape.
    • Intensify it, let it spread throughout your body.
    • Choose a symbol (any object or toy) and “pour” the resource into it.
    • Give this symbol to your earlier self on the timeline, before the negative event.
16. Now, associate into yourself on the timeline. See how a guardian angel-like figure gives you these symbols, which you absorb. You might cry or get goosebumps—this is normal.
17. Armed with new resources, walk forward along the timeline into the moment of the negative event. Look around and notice how everything feels different this time. Now you feel no pain, fear, or sadness; you feel calm and strong. You go through the situation, and it no longer changes you or your life.

It’s important to physically and vividly experience the moment of “living through” and transferring the resource state. Give it a color, shape, temperature, and texture, and let it spread through your body. Our subconscious only understands symbols, so you must communicate with it in this way.

When I used to work as a consultant, I often helped survivors of abuse using an advanced version of this technique. Its effectiveness in overcoming complexes and toxic beliefs is remarkable!

I wish you success in rewriting all your painful situations and psychological traumas with the “Changing Personal History” technique.

Don’t let your past kill your potential—let it work for you from now on!