Rewire Your Brain: Think Your Way to a Better Life

infantile amnesia
. However, you haven ’ t forgotten or 
repressed these memories; rather, the memories are not conscious, 
and they are available to your consciousness only as an emotional 
reaction. The implicit memory system develops before the capacity 
to code explicit memories. 
Implicit memory is the basis for many emotional predispositions 
and cognitive habits. A preference for using withdrawal to deal with 
confl ict, for example, may become refi ned with cognitive develop-
ment and experience, but its implicit function (maintaining limited 
connections to other people) is likely to remain the same unless you 
work hard to make neuroplastic change in your social brain system. 
Hence, in situations in which fear conditioning and procedural 
learning occur simultaneously (possibly outside your awareness, 
but prior to the maturation of episodic learning), you may have 
acquired habits and conditioned responses as a child, outside your 
awareness. 
Many of the habitual emotional responses and behavioral pat-
terns that you consider an integral part of your identity are implicit 
memories. Because they are habitual, they are not easily changed 
without consistent effort, such as following the FEED method. 
Implicit memories are not readily available through insight, and 
insight typically doesn ’ t change them. Because much of what you 
experience and respond to is based on implicit memories, uncon-
scious processes play an important role in all your relationships. 
The fact that you are able to read this book automatically and 
relatively e ffortlessly (unless you ’ re distracted) indicates that you have 
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C u l t i va t i n g
M e m o r y
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procedural memory. Because of procedural memory, you could even 
read a page or two without any of the content entering your conscious-
ness; this is a result of procedural memory, which you acquired for read-
ing when you fi rst struggled with understanding letters and words. 
Procedural memory contrasts with declarative and episodic memory 
in some important respects. Whereas declarative and episodic mem-
ory allow you to remember
events,
procedural memory allows you to 
recall how to repeat specifi c
processes,
including skills and habits: read-
ing, gargling, typing, riding a bicycle, and so on. In procedural learning, 
no content is necessarily involved. Instead, you remember
how to do
things. With enough practice, procedural memory allows you to per-
form different actions or processes automatically and unconsciously. 
Procedural learning is also essential for the development of the aspect 
of personality referred to as
character
: the remarkable behavioral, emo-
tional, and cognitive consistency that one acquires over time. 
Procedural memory becomes neuroplasticity ingrained in your 
long - term memory by following three steps: 
1.