How to Break Free from What You Keep Repeating
This post is based on a podcast about childhood trauma
Annyx Day is the founder and CEO of Living Life Above, Moving Yourself Forward, a RTT® Practitioner/Certified Hypnotherapist, and a RTC® Success Coach. She helps and guides her clients excel in their personal and professional lives.
Executive Contributor Annyx Day, B.A., M.A.
No one likes to talk about childhood issues. I absolutely understand that. It is a deeply sensitive topic, and for many, it feels safer to keep the door closed and pretend the past doesn’t linger. But here is the truth I have learned through my own healing and through guiding over 100 clients: what happened to you as a child does not stay in the past. It shows up in your relationships, your career, your self-worth, and the silent, looping thoughts you carry to bed each night.
Today, I want to take you on a journey through the invisible inheritance of childhood trauma—how it shapes your adult patterns, why your brain keeps choosing what is familiar (even if the familiar hurts), and most importantly, how Rapid Transformational Therapy® (RTT®) can help you break the cycle for good.
Let me take you deeper.
What childhood trauma really is
According to Northwestern University, childhood trauma refers to a scary, dangerous, violent, or life-threatening event that happens to a child between the ages of 0 and 18. This includes physical neglect, emotional abuse or violence, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and even witnessing intimate partner violence, natural disasters, or the sudden loss of a loved one.
But here is what many people overlook: trauma can happen even when you are not the direct target. If you witnessed a sibling being harmed and felt powerless to stop it, that is trauma. If you heard yelling from another room but couldn’t see what was happening, that is trauma. That feeling of helplessness—the realization that you cannot protect yourself or someone you love—creates what we call learned helplessness. You understand that the abuser is bigger, stronger, or more powerful, so you freeze. You do nothing. And that inaction imprints itself onto your subconscious mind.
Many people develop strong negative emotions like fear, loss, and distress in reaction to these experiences. Others develop learned helplessness because they lacked the ability to stop the event. Either way, if you did not receive help as a child, you will most likely carry that trauma into adulthood—whether you realize it or not.
The Unseen Thread: How Your Past Shows Up in Your Present
You can sweep it under the rug. You can tell yourself, “It happened so long ago, it doesn’t bother me anymore.” But your strong reactions to certain situations will prove otherwise. A disproportionate emotional response to criticism, a deep-seated fear of abandonment, or a pattern of attracting the same toxic partner over and over again—these are not coincidences. They are echoes.
Let me give you a common example that I see in my practice. A client comes to me and says, “I don’t understand why I keep attracting the wrong people. They mistreat me. They are jealous, controlling, or borderline abusive. I am a good person. I deserve better.”
And they are absolutely right—they do deserve better. But during an RTT® session, we go into hypnosis, and the subconscious mind reveals the root of why you keep attracting the wrong person. Inevitably, we find that this client witnessed one or both parents in an unhealthy relationship. It could have been physical, emotional, psychological, or financial abuse which ultimately results in a complete lack of trust. Because the client witnessed this dynamic repeatedly, it became a learned behavior that that is what relationships look like and how they are supported to be.
Your brain goes for what it knows. If dysfunction is familiar, your subconscious will steer you toward dysfunction because that is what it knows. Not because you want it, but because it feels like home—even when that home is unsafe.
The Symptom vs. The Root Cause
Traditional talk therapy often focuses on managing the symptoms. It teaches you coping mechanisms for the anxiety, the depression, or the relationship struggles. That is valuable, but it is not permanent and it treat the surface level only.
RTT® is different because we do not stop at the symptom. We go straight to the root, cause, and the reason.
Using the earlier example, the symptom is “attracting the wrong partner.” The root is “witnessing an abusive parental dynamic and internalizing that as the blueprint for love.” Once we uncover that root in hypnosis, the client has a massive aha moment. They finally understand why they do what they do and why they attract who they attract. That understanding alone is liberating—but it is only the first step.
The real transformation happens when we change the pattern. Using specific RTT® tools and techniques, we interrupt and break the subconscious link between “familiar” and “safe.” We make the unfamiliar feel safe. We rebuild the client’s self-esteem and confidence from when and where it was broken so that they no longer accept mistreatment as the price of love.
When you interrupt the pattern, when you learn how love is really meant to be felt, and when you change your thoughts, you change your emotions. When you change your emotions, you change your behaviors, your actions, and ultimately your events. And when you change your behaviors, other people notice. You stop attracting the jealous, insecure partner because your energy has shifted completely. You start attracting—and receiving—the respect you deserve.
Rebuilding Self-Worth: The Foundation of Lasting Change
I have worked with clients who have been through unimaginable pain and suffering. Some have never heard a compliment in their entire lives. Some have never experienced a calm household. Some have been conditioned to believe they are worthless, broken, or unlovable. My job is to help them flip the script.
During the transformational part of the RTT® session, we speak directly to the subconscious mind. We tell it the truth: You are worthy. You are deserving. You are enough. We repeat these truths until the mind starts to believe them. And then, for 21 days following the session, the client listens to their personalized transformational recording every single day to reinforce what they have learned about their worthiness.
Let me explain the recording, because I think this is one of the most powerful parts of the process. The session itself is two to three hours long, but I do not record the whole thing. I only record the personalized transformational recording—the part where all your positive, empowering, goal-oriented suggestions are spoken. Evidently, these words and positive reframing are your words, your goals, your desires, your insights which teach you how to manifest the life you really want and deserve. You listen to that recording for 21 days or more to solidify the new neural pathways. This is known as neuroplasticity. And here is my advice to every single client: keep that recording forever. Six months down the road, if you have a bad day, a moment of doubt, or a trigger, you can pop those headphones on and remind your brain of the truth. It will always bring you back to alignment.
One Simple Practice to Shift Your Frequency
Before we wrap up, I want to share a personal story that shifted my own trajectory. Before I met my husband, I was 34 years old. I had been in serious relationships and non-serious ones, and I had reached a point where I made peace with being alone. I spoke to the universe and said, “If I am meant to be alone for the rest of my life, I am absolutely okay with that.”
Shortly after, I heard someone suggest writing down the qualities you want in a partner—but not superficial things like looks or height. Write down the values. So I wrote down five things: respect, honesty, integrity, fidelity, and a great work ethic. I folded the paper, left it alone, and trusted the process.
Shortly thereafter, It happened for me. And I believe it will happen for you, too.
If you are stuck in a pattern of distrust, fear, or repeated disappointment, try this exercise. Write down what truly matters to you. Let go of the need to control how it arrives. Just trust that when you raise your vibration and heal your subconscious wounds, the right people will find their way to you.
You Are Not Alone
Regardless of what you have been through, you are not alone. I have been through childhood trauma myself, and for years, I swept it under the rug. I told myself it would never bother me. But it always crept back up at the worst times, in the worst ways. It was the universe telling me, “You need to deal with this.”
Do not be afraid to reach out. Do not assume that healing will take years and years of grueling therapy. That is why it is called Rapid Transformational Therapy. It accelerates the healing process because it works with the subconscious mind directly and this is where profound healing happens.
At the end of your first session, you will not feel the same way you did when you walked in. You may have been apprehensive, scared, or even terrified. But you will leave feeling lighter, freer, and profoundly different. My clients tell me they feel like a weight has been lifted—because it has.
If this resonates with you, if you recognize yourself in these patterns, or if you are simply curious about how RTT® can help you break free from the chains of your past, I would be honored to guide you.
You deserve a life that is not defined by your childhood. You deserve to attract love, peace, and success. And you deserve to finally, truly, live life above.
If you are ready to stop repeating the past and start creating your future, contact me today.
📞 613-797-8096
📧 annyx@livinglifeabove.com
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