Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is that you can actively strengthen a memory.
Speaker 1: If there is a pleasant spot in your past you'd
Speaker 1: like to think about more often, or even if you
Speaker 1: know something good is coming up, you can secure its
Speaker 1: place in your thoughts, which is preferable to dwelling on
Speaker 1: bad memories or future worries. Life is made up of memories,
Speaker 1: but many of us have a faulty impression of how
Speaker 1: memory works. We think it's like a filing cabinet. Things
Speaker 1: go in basically as they happen, and though they may
Speaker 1: fade with age, they are basically there as they were,
Speaker 1: But in fact the situation is more co located. It
Speaker 1: is well known that memories can be planted when they
Speaker 1: seem convincing. There's also some fascinating research that we can
Speaker 1: strengthen memories after the fact when we decide that we
Speaker 1: need them. Perhaps you have seen this in your own life.
Speaker 1: If someone you knew vaguely in the past winds up
Speaker 1: in the news for some reason, you find yourself remembering
Speaker 1: a lot more details of your encounters than you ever
Speaker 1: would have had reason to recount otherwise, that quirk of
Speaker 1: memory is neither here nor there. The reason this is
Speaker 1: useful knowledge is that when we know memories can be
Speaker 1: shaped and made more polished, we can take active steps
Speaker 1: to do that. With good memories, we can think of
Speaker 1: memory as more of a garden than a filing cabinet.
Speaker 1: When we actively choose to cultivate certain plants, they flourish
Speaker 1: and become the dominant thing we see whenever we visit.
Speaker 1: Here is how this works. Think of a recent happy memory,
Speaker 1: really try to think about it. Think about your senses.
Speaker 1: What were you seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, Think through
Speaker 1: the sequence of events. Think about how you would recount
Speaker 1: the story if you took photos. Look at those photos
Speaker 1: and try telling the story while using the photos to
Speaker 1: nudge your memory. Write the story down in a journal.
Speaker 1: Tell someone else about the experience. If someone was with you,
Speaker 1: make a point of talking about the experience with them.
Speaker 1: Talk about it multiple times. If you have any artifacts
Speaker 1: from the experience, you know souvenirs, concert t shirts, look
Speaker 1: at those. If there is a way to revisit parts
Speaker 1: of the experience again, like listening to a song from
Speaker 1: that time, or making a recipe. Do that, and as
Speaker 1: you do, think of the memory again. As an example,
Speaker 1: I've been trying to do this with a recent little
Speaker 1: adventure I had with my eleven year old son. We
Speaker 1: drove to a nearby tulip farm. Together. He picked twenty
Speaker 1: tulips to bring home. We got lobster rules from a
Speaker 1: food truck that was parked by the farm, and we
Speaker 1: sat in the grass and ate them together. They were
Speaker 1: really incredible lobster rolls. Now, it wasn't a life altering event,
Speaker 1: but it was very pleasant, and so I've been thinking
Speaker 1: about the colors of the tulip field. I remember the
Speaker 1: smell of the dust in the parking lot. I remember
Speaker 1: the smell of spring flowers, and the cool feel of
Speaker 1: the grass, and the sweet taste of lobster on a
Speaker 1: buttered roll. I remember my son's exclamation of how good
Speaker 1: the roll tasted. I took pictures and looked at the
Speaker 1: pictures afterwards. He and I talked about it. I looked
Speaker 1: at the tulips and vases on my kitchen counter. Those
Speaker 1: will wilt soon, I know, but I can linger and
Speaker 1: look at them now. And of course he and I
Speaker 1: have mapped that lobster food trucks, schedule to see if
Speaker 1: we can get rules again in the future, which will
Speaker 1: cement the Saturday afternoon at the tulip farm into our
Speaker 1: memories even more, All of this can make a memory brighter.
Speaker 1: It can make a particular memory sparkle like a spring tulip.
Speaker 1: You could do this with any good memory, and this
Speaker 1: works prospectively too. When you know a good event is
Speaker 1: coming up, you can take steps to make sure the
Speaker 1: memory will stand out. Talk about what's going on with
Speaker 1: the people who are there with you, find some sort
Speaker 1: of artifact, make sure you are paying attend chin, taking
Speaker 1: mental notes, and being fully aware. How will you recount
Speaker 1: this story, and then make plans to recall this memory afterwards.
Speaker 1: The more you do, the stronger the memory becomes. Dwelling
Speaker 1: in the past gets a bad reputation, but I think
Speaker 1: there is much to recommend it. Dwelling on a happy
Speaker 1: memory is often better than worrying about the present. It
Speaker 1: is definitely better than dwelling on bad memories, which we
Speaker 1: can be want to do. Do yourself a favor and
Speaker 1: cultivate the garden. Life will feel better as a result.
Speaker 1: In the meantime. This is Laura. Thanks for listening and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Hey everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod.
Speaker 1: That's b E the number four, then Breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at iHeartMedia dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled
Speaker 1: out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look
Speaker 1: forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production
Speaker 1: of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,
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