The following thoughts are opinions only and not stated as fact. My mind is getting foggy so I thought I would write this drivel about memory down before I forgot it completely :-) In short, I am reflecting how memory management has been beneficial to me. Sure, it's nice to look ahead, set high goals and hope to achieve them, but how one gets to where they are going says a lot more about a person's character that the position they have attained.
I have found it helpful to use the memory of significant incidents to polish my desire for harmony and contentment. Extending special times, staying in a moment of joy or accomplishment for as long as one can, and recalling positive feelings in down times, can have wonderful results, in my experience. Paying immediate and special attention to negative incidents is vital yes, but stretching the good times and zealously recalling them, seems to diminish the negatives until they no longer hold merit. Doing this has worked well for me, so I am just passing it on. Memory >From the time we are born, memories play an important role in our development and contribute in many ways to make our lives better, or worse. Memories can bring us happiness, sorrow, offer solutions to problems, and help in our development and overall contentment. Crying in a certain way seems to bring food sooner, so even as young children we recognize reactions to our behavior, and store them away for future use. We learn that when mother gets a certain look in her eye, or becomes uncommonly quiet, a modification in behavior is usually a wise decision. We continue in life, storing good and bad memories. These memories can be used as guidelines and tools to improve the quality of our lives. Recalling incidents of events or feelings, and their corresponding effects, can offer immediate shortcuts to the resolution of new problems. Obviously, our intellect is a direct result of our ability to remember. Although intelligence gathering and storing is an important component of living a positive and progressive life, it's emotions that govern our daily existence. How we make use of, and store, factual information in our memories, determines our success in our selected profession. How we store our emotional memories determines if we are happy and content, or unhappy and discontent in our daily lives. Emotions determine many things in our lives including what we should do with our intellect. It guides us in mate selection, helps choose a profession and determines how we interact with our family, friends, social contacts and ATM machines. Likes and dislikes are stored vividly in our memories and create the overall structure of our persona. Reaction to incidents is largely governed by these recorded memories. What did we do the last time this happened? What lessons did we learn then that could be applied now, to bring the incident to a fast and clear resolution? Emotional memories can induce laughter or tears when brought to mind. Extending these memories can bring about long periods of joy or sorrow. It is therefore very important to manage these memories, putting good ones on the top shelf, putting bad ones on the back burner. Accessing these memories will help guide us in our effort to deal with similar incidents that may occur in the future. How we store negative incidents in our memory has a greater impact on our overall mental health than the storing of positive incidents. Many people hide from negative events only to have them crop up later in their lives, causing emotional harm and stress. One can't avoid memories, but how we manage them can have a great impact in our lives. The endeavor of these words is to describe what I have learned about the methods of managing and using memory to improve the overall quality of daily life. Good Memories Rewarding incidents in our lives should create positive memories that can be called upon at will. Reflecting on these top-shelf memories can improve ones general contentment and elevate the quality of life. When one experiences something wonderful or inspiring, they should keep these memories close at hand, memorizing the feeling of the moment, storing the warmth that the heart felt during the incident. Concentrating on this feeling over and over again will solidify it in ones memory. This feeling can then be called on to make one feel better in down times. Bad Memories Negative incidents usually have much more impact than good, and can create extended periods of stress and unhappiness. If not dealt with properly, thoroughly and immediately, they can fester and work their way within, only to resurface at a later date, often with devastating and long-lasting effects. Management of negative memory is probably the single most important aspect in the effort to attain overall happiness. It is vital to immediately identify the source of negativity, understand the cause, somehow accept the action, live with the consequences and learn from the affect. This knowledge can then be stored as back burner memory, accessed only to eradicate and protect should a similar occurrence arise in the future. Functional Memory Using Memory as a Teacher Since memory is the foundation of learning, having a sound and zealous memory-management routine improves ones ability to process information learned in the pursuit of knowledge. As ones knowledge base increases, the capacity to compartmentalize, organize, structure and record thoughts and processes also increases. This provides us with solid memory-management foundation, making the recording and storing of information much easier. Memory on Demand A very important aspect of using positive memory to improve our daily lives is to incorporate a routine whereby focusing on these memories becomes second nature. A daily chore or routine can be used to trigger the thought process. For example, one may train them selves so that every time they brush their teeth, they will focus on thoughts and feelings derived from a positive incident that has been committed to surface or top shelf memory. This has the effect of keeping a positive attitude close at hand, thus improving the overall feeling of contentment in ones life. Memory and the Expansion of Consciousness The memory of feelings may have a huge impact on ones conscience. In meditation, it is important to cleanse ones mind of thought. Focusing on previous emotions to begin meditation, on the other hand, can open the door to sub-conscious realization. By concentrating on a pure and blissful feeling, while putting out the welcome mat for spiritual association, can often lead to rich experiences in the sub conscious realm. Red-Flag Memories When something has caused us pain or anger, the memory of this occurrence should act as a red flag to help steer us away from impending danger. As soon as one is confronted with a similar situation in the future, the previous steps taken to analyze and overcome the incident should be taken off the back burner and incorporated into finding the fastest and most complete resolution to the problem. Once a solution is obtained and the matter resolved, the memory should be returned to the back burner. Using memory in this way helps reduce the damage of a negative incident, allowing one to return to a state of happiness faster. Therapeutic Memory Creating Vivid Memories (Stretching the Positive) When a really outstanding incident happens in ones life, logging it in the top shelf of their memory can be very beneficial. It is possible to stretch the emotion of an incident for extended periods of time. This will burn the full impact of the emotion into ones memory, thus supplying an immediate source of comfort or elation when life may be less than enjoyable. It is important to focus on the emotions of the incident rather than the factual aspect of it. What did it FEEL like? How can I store this feeling so that I can have easy access to it in the future? What can I do to automatically bring this feeling into my daily life? Moments of joy and bliss are often fleeting, only to be replaced by life's customary feelings. Stretching these moments, and storing them near at hand can drastically improve the quality of life. This can have the result of turning the mundane into the exquisite. Imagine your favorite thing in life, how much pleasure it brings you. Imagine putting these feelings one after the other until your whole existence is full of blissful feeling. Of course, this may be rather hard to do, but the effort will surely pay dividends. Using Memory for Protection - Early warning system Using positive memories can help to alleviate negative incidents before they have the chance to register their full impact potential. Recognizing the approach of a potentially negative situation should trigger an automatic response whereby one utilizes all that they have learned and stored in their memory to immediately address the situation before it has a chance to ferment and take full effect. Nipping the chance of negativity in the bud greatly reduces the overall damage caused by the incident. Storing Negative Memories Before one can remove a negative incident from their immediate psyche and store it as a back burner memory, one must fully analyze the event and come to terms with it. Simply blotting out the incident from ones memory can lead to future trauma and continued pain and stress. Many incidents in life are worthy of obscurity, but to do so without a heartfelt effort to come to grips with them is dangerous. Before committing a negative incident to a back-burner memory, one must ask, and find answers to, several questions. What happened? What caused it to happen? Should it have happened? Did I cause it to happen? How can I learn from this event? What can I do to prevent this from happening again? What happened? Although the event may be obvious in its content, painting a clear picture of it in your mind will help to find a shortcut to a conclusion, thus allowing it to be stored in the proper area of ones memory. What caused it to happen? Before one begins to find a solution to a negative incident, one must first determine why the incident happened. Should it have happened? One must determine if there was anything that they could have done to prevent the incident from happening. If one recognized the incident while it was approaching and did nothing to divert its eventuality, they hold some responsibility in the occurrence of the event and must therefore take steps to not let this repeat itself. Did I cause it to happen? Causing a negative incident will put the full responsibility of the event on the shoulders of the perpetrator. This should trigger major activity in ones conscious ambition to improve the quality of ones life. The lessons learned from this activity will hopefully remove the occurrence of this again. How can I learn from this event? If the incident was preventable, taking the required steps to avoid further occurrences is vital. Recognizing signs of an impending event can help to deter it. What can I do to prevent this event from occurring again? Storing a processed negative event in the back burner of ones memory, and being able to call it up on demand, are vital to being able to prevent similar events from occurring again. Steps taken in solving a similar problem can be incorporated in bringing a fast and efficient resolution to the impending event. Adding Muscle to Memory Using memory as a tool can work wonders for ones overall health, but like any growing thing, it needs exercise and polishing to stay healthy. Dedicating time and effort into improving ones memory will improve ones capacity to work efficiently and productively. A good way to strengthen the ability of the memory to work positively is to constantly challenge it. Recording seemingly insignificant incidents or facts, and then bringing them to the surface can be very rewarding in the long run. Observing the exact position the toothpaste tube landed the previous night for example, and then remembering it before looking at it in the morning, trains the memory to stay alert and therefore increases its functionality. Another good exercise to sharpen ones memory and awareness is to walk with eyes closed. Take a bead down the hallway or across the room at home. Record the location of the doors, windows, paintings, or other items. Select a starting point and walk with your eyes closed, stopping at the first item. Name the item and open your eyes. How close were you? Go back to the starting point and go to the second item and so on. This will have a great impact on ones sense of recall, or memory. This activity also helps to ground one, removing outside thoughts, if only briefly. The mental exercise is also refreshing. Conclusion Memories are obviously good and bad. Dealing with bad incidents before committing them to memory is vital. Keeping good memories close at hand has a calming effect on ones life. People often try to look ahead, set goals etc to help enhance their lives. Although these things are important, remembering and managing the past is vital to the richness of the present. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Minds-Eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
