The Magic of Memories!
Have you ever heard a piece of music and immediately you are transported elsewhere? The time and place has changed and you are back into the familiar surroundings associated with the music.
It happens to me when I hear certain music from the sixties – which is not too often now – but immediately I am taken back into the army barracks. It is afternoon and the sun is shining through the windows. I am walking down the center of the room between the two rows of beds. I sense the smell of the barracks. Although conscripted into the army and not there out of choice, the music still brings back a certain element of nostalgia. I am sure you have experienced something quite similar.
The mind is incredible. It stores so many memories for us. Some new. Some old. Some good. Some bad. But through our memories the mind can whisk us back into time and across continents in a split second. Quite unexpectedly things that happen in the present bring memories to the surface, some which have been buried for years while others are more recent.
You read an article, you see someone, you hear something spoken and the memories flood back. The amazing aspect is that the mind brings back the thoughts and the feelings you were having at the time the memory was made. It affects you in the present. If you were happy then it is pleasing. If you were sad then it makes you feel unhappy.
Neuroscientists tell us that not all memories are totally true. Because the brain stores different aspects of the same memory in different places, it sometimes puts together pieces of more than one similar experience and we recall the memory in that way. We relate the story as though that is how it happened. Yet the mind has done a little embellishing of the story without our knowledge.
I find that a little disconcerting. It makes me wonder if I am sharing falsified memories. I will never know. Anyway I will not lose any sleep over it. If you ask me about my childhood memories I will still tell you the same stories!
Take care of your good memories. Recall them. Enjoy them. Like a friend recently referred to the memories of her mother. Her mother was always laughing and that memory she treasures. But at the same time you need to make new memories. Spend time with your family, your children or your grandchildren. Create memories with them and for them.
Your family is special. Give them some special memories to store in the memory bank. One day it could be very important to them when they want to take out what is in the bank!
