Hi Snow; Your experience of few childhood memories could have many reasons including:

• early trauma(s) which makes it easier to suppress/hide experiences.
• avoidance of emotional expression or of feeling strong emotions. Memories evoke emotions &, strange as it may seem, emotion evokes memories. Avoidance of emotion may suggest early trauma. This is not always the case as some people live in families & societies which "put a premium" on being logical & analytical & "controlling one's emotions" (notice her the use of 3rd person can be used to depersonalize).
• growing up in an environment which encouraged you to "don't worry about...", "don't get upset", "don't cry - laugh - be afraid - etc" and other ways of suggesting you should not feel what you feel. This is not necessarily done to hurt you, but rather the ones doing this have been taught similar ways of "coping" when they were growing up & into adulthood as well (peer pressure is alive & well for adults as well as for youths).

There are other possible causes, & you might have some ideas about this as well.

What can you do? There is a process known as "thought stalking" which may help you. I posted several articles about this on my website a couple of years back. Here is the link to the page:

Enhance Your Life – Control Your Thinking. Although the focus in the articles is on health, the technique can be applied elsewhere & could help you to explore your childhood memories (over a period of time of course. While it is possible to remember immediately, you will likely need to do some exploring to get things moving.

When using thought stalking (if you try this route) you may want to ad some techniques:

• apply thought stalking to your reactions - responses to sensory inputs (eg when you smell fresh baked bread what does this bring to mind?) Be creative here in using your senses & sensory experiences. This could begin to open doorways to an earlier "You".
• Do this with your emotions as well. For example, if some thing, person, animal, event etc. triggers emotions, you could use thought stalking to examine what's going through your subconscious at these times.
• Use old photos & other items from your past (also includes people, places, etc.) to evoke emotions & thoughts & maybe images, etc, etc. - whatever they bring to your mind. Work with these using thought stalking techniques. (these "items could still be part of your life today, but you will be "seeing" them from a different point of view).

You may well have developed a longstanding habit of "forgetting" or not remembering, so it might take you some time to begin seeing results. If you stick with it you should have some - or a lot of - success.

Another avenue to explore might be some kind of body work such as massage or self massage (google Qigong massage & self massage & you should find some videos on YouTube & maybe some articles).

I suggest body work because often emotions - & correspondingly old memories - get trapped in the body - energy system. Processes like massage, yoga, tai chi, walking - whatever stimulates the body & it's energy system may, especially if done with mindfulness - awareness & thought stalking, may evoke old memories.

Also, you may notice increased dreaming & - or intensity of dreaming as you are digging deeper into your psyche.

A final note: be gentle with yourself if you do these processes - or any others which begin to evoke the past for you. There are reasons why your unconscious mind is hiding things from your past from you. It will only show you what it "thinks" you can handle. Know when to ease off & rest to allow yourself to assimalate new learnings. That being said, you may experience some discomfort during these processes & surrounding times. As long as you slow down when you need to & have good intentions for success you should do well.

Best on your journey. Remember, it's not just about the destination.

Best regards, Michael