Power within – 12 Strategies – Part 12 Emotional Strategy: EMOTIONS: MEMORY

"STRONGER THE EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT TO AN EXPERIENCE BETTER THE MEMORY STORAGE/RETRIEVAL OF THAT EXPERIENCE”

Memory:

 Your memory to a particular event depends on how strong you attach emotions to that event. Your experience to an event is deeply stored in your memory when the emotion attached to that event is high. This emotion can be positive or negative but that doesn’t matter. What matter the most is the intensity of the emotion. Memory storage and retrieval are faster when the intensity of the emotion to an event is stronger.

This is why; you could able to recollect your worst experiences of your life or the best happiest events of your life in a split of a second. The experiences would have happened twenty years before. But, it is still fresh in your mind as the emotion attached to the event is stronger.

Construct:

You are simply a construct of your past experiences. You do certain things and avoid other things in life. All these choices are primarily driven by your own past experiences. You and your behaviour are simply driven by your experiences to the events that accumulated over the years until now.

Take away: Here is your take away based on the above two principles. The primary difference between human and animals is to thrive above your survival. Animals exist here to survive whereas human exist to thrive. Thriving means that we create something of our own. Remember, we exist here to CREATE. With this mind set, we can change our experience, our memory storage & hence our own definition.

Personally, I was at my worst health condition at one point of time. Then, it was considered really bad. That desperate situation changed my experience of life & changed my own definition. The experience which was considered bad has given a new definition of me as a Health coach now. So, what was considered bad at one point of time has become good now.

This is going to be true in your case also if you simply review your own experiences. What was bad for you a year before is now causing good in your life. Fundamentally, when we are here to CREATE and so, whatever good or bad events are primarily steering us in the path of creation. So, here onwards, do not worry when an experience appears to be bad. You now know now how to redefine this experience. This event is exposing you to something good. When the emotion attached to an event is always converted into positives, your memory bank is stored with positive data and eventually, that convert to a person who is here to THRIVE.

Summary:

“Stronger the emotional attachments to an experience better the memory storage/retrieval of that experience”. Experience is stored deeply in our memory when the emotion attached to that experience is stronger. Memory retrieval is easier for the high emotional stored content. Simple Strategy: Mindful of the emotion that you attach to an event/experience.