How positive and negative memories influence us
If you think about it, everything happens twice. Once in the world outside and then again in our mind. When our incredible senses have processed what’s happened, we decide if it’s a good or a bad thing. It’s then filed away as either a positive or a negative memory.
This is actually a physical process in the brain. Where a specific peptide, called neurotensin, is assigned. For the purposes of this post though, let’s visualise it as a rubber stamp, marking your memories as positive or negative.
So why does this happen? If you think about it, our prehistoric ancestors would need to clearly define positive and negative memories. Positive experiences were often related to food sources or potential mates. Things that were good for them, that they needed more of.
Negative experiences on the other hand would probably relate to something that nearly killed them, that they’d need to avoid in future. Eating the wrong kind of berry or approaching the wrong type of animal would probably just be the start of a very long list.
This type of definitive, ‘black or white’ thinking helped them in their world. In many ways though, it’s still how we’re geared up to approach ours.
You should easily be able to spot some obvious problems though. How many people have completely written something off because of a bad experience? It could relate to a type of food, an activity or something that’s influenced an opinion. They might be missing out and adopting a closed mindset because of it.
On the flip side, some people are likely to be going too far with the things they define as positive. Gaming, social media and spending are the first things that pop into my mind. They may also be focussed on the short-term rewards good things naturally deliver, at the cost of long-term happiness.
It might help if you take time think about how you stamp your memories. Are you closing any doors unnecessarily and are there any things you do that have gotten a little out of control? What could you change?
To be very clear, I’m not talking about the big things here, like trauma or events where we’ve been in danger or distress. If there are memories you’re uncomfortable with or trigger you, always reach out for professional help and advice. Don’t try anything like this until you do.