Picked up a random poetry book From the crowded shelf. Quick easy hour read: Delight and wonder. Then, Found…
Painting Pictures
Yesterday, I sat inside the door of a local grocery store, while my daughter and her friends sold Girl Scout cookies. During the five hours we were there, I watched the sky change from overcast to snow to sunshine to clouds and snow again. At one point, the snowflakes were so big that I imagined myself as an eight year old girl again, sitting in a cozy mountain cabin, drinking hot cocoa, and playing card games with my grandma. Then the sunshine broke through the flakes and all too soon my fond reminisces brought me back to reality.
Our minds are constantly painting pictures as we experience different moments in our days.
The brain is a magical piece of machinery constantly changing and adapting what we see, hear, think, feel, touch, and smell based on our internal and external experiences.
What I find amazing is how we can be sitting in one place, and suddenly, we are triggered to some other moment in our past with just a simple experience, like snowflakes.
Human.memory.net shares, “StorageĀ is the more or less passive process ofĀ retaining informationĀ in theĀ brain, whether in theĀ sensory memory, theĀ short-term memoryĀ or the more permanentĀ long-term memory. Each of these different stages of human memory function as a sort ofĀ filter that helps to protect us from the flood of information that confront us on a daily basis, avoiding an overload of information and helping to keep us sane. The more the information is repeated or used, the more likely it is to be retained inĀ long-term memory (which is why, for example, studying helps people to perform better on tests).”
The more we repeat or redo certain activities, or tasks, the more likely we are to retain the information from those tasks.
Now I cannot remember how to speak French, even though I took it for four years as an adolescent, but I can remember how to brush my teeth, tie my shoes, and drive a car. If I had continued my practice in French, I undoubtedly would remember how to speak it, just like I know how to write a letter. In the same way, what I do remember from my French classes are the people and activities, especially being in a Paris Post Office with my teacher trying to ask how to buy a stamp. I doubted my abilities to talk to the French Postal Worker correctly, thus what I remember is completely botching the conversation despite the person’s friendly and patient smile.
Jeremy Dean, on PSYBLOG, further explains,
“People also tend to think that the past is fixed and gone; it canāt be changed. But how we recall the past and think about it canĀ be changed. Recalling memories in different ways can help us re-interpret the past and set us off on a different path in the future. For example, studies have shown that people can crowd out painful negative memories by focusing on more positive ones (Levy & Anderson, 2008). All in all, our memory and recall isnāt as poor as we might imagine. It may not work like a computer, but thatās what makes it all the more fascinating to understand and experience.”
Where ever you are and whatever you are doing, you will undoubtedly remember a similar such moment from your past. Is this a good or bad thing? How do you respond?
How can we use these triggers, or sudden memory recalls, to our advantage? Share your thoughts with me!