This section ask you to remember your childhood room. The reason to you go back and write about this is it is one of the first places of your memory. Your room was your first place. Like in a movie or a novel, the setting is important and plays a part in the developing drama. It was important that War and Peace was in set in Russia or The Tale of Two Cities in London and Paris or Luke’s training with Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back was on Dagobah.
When you start to think back to your memory, you enter a dream state, part of your right brain—the imaginative side of your brain. Memories are powerful and hold emotions around images and sometimes those emotions are hidden like trinkets placed on a high shelf. When you start to explore, you find that you remember more and more and that emotions will come back to you. Along with images and emotions, you may find other sensory memories, such as smells and sounds.
When you dive back into your memory of your childhood room, you are going to the first place that was yours. Your bed, shelves, books, toys were all impact to you because many of them were “firsts” in your life. There is a sense of newness and wonder. Memories are powerful tools to link to our ability to visualize and in turn, be creative. Memories are like dreams. We are able to nearly touch them. By diving back into your childhood and looking around, you find a tool that will help you visualize for every part of your life.
Try this: Pull out your journal and describe the first room you remember as a child. Maybe you’ll start by walking in. Describe what you see and where it was placed. Use all your senses: in addition to sight, describe how things feel, smell, taste, and sound. What do you remember? What was your favorite thing about this room? What was your favorite memory? What can you take from here and incorporate into your life now?
Some of the memories may be sad; keep writing and push through talking about about why you’re sad. If they make you laugh, keep writing and describe why your laughing. This is a chance to explore and dive deep into childhood, memories, and feelings. By putting words around the description, even if it isn’t the precise word or description, that’s okay. The point is the process of writing about the memories and feelings and invigorating yourself with old feelings that you may have forgotten and what caused them.