Emotional flotsam
looks for an anchor, and if you understand that and consciously choose
your cues, you can be on top of your emotions and choose the way you
feel at any time!
Have you ever experienced a fleeting,
unattached memory that has surprised you, coming as it does from
nowhere, often in the middle of an activity that is completely
unrelated? For instance, sometimes, I suddenly remember the street
corner my home was on several years ago; other times I am revisited by a
clear vision of myself on the emerald greens outside a British castle I
visited more than a decade ago! You wonder what triggered the memory of
that seemingly inconsequential moment, but then shrug and move on.
However, several visitations later, you
realise there must have been something special, almost magical about
that moment, which visits you repeatedly across time and space, even
though you cannot figure out what. Most probably, it was the emotion
attached with it.
I have long wondered and worried about such emotional flotsam that evokes uncalled for memories or momentary emotions that pass on. In fact, science has a term for it involuntary memory, when cues from everyday life evoke past recollections without any conscious effort on our part. It is almost like these moments or incidents are attached to a stimulant or trigger one is unaware of ever heard of the concept of anchoring emotions? Experts explain that most of us can and do anchor emotions onto activities, even to simple acts.
I have long wondered and worried about such emotional flotsam that evokes uncalled for memories or momentary emotions that pass on. In fact, science has a term for it involuntary memory, when cues from everyday life evoke past recollections without any conscious effort on our part. It is almost like these moments or incidents are attached to a stimulant or trigger one is unaware of ever heard of the concept of anchoring emotions? Experts explain that most of us can and do anchor emotions onto activities, even to simple acts.
Our sensory experiences get associated
with incidents and trigger memories. Sometimes the intensity of a moment
in which you were completely present in the `now’ gets associated with a
smell, an action, a sight or a sound, which will always whisk you back
to that moment. So the smell of a barbecue may remind you of a bad
moment you had at a picnic many years ago where there may have been a
barbecue around without your remembering it.The sound of a buzzing bee
may transport you to a pleasant moment in childhood. Did you know, when a
woman plunges her hand into her oversized bag and withdraws the exact
lipstick she is looking for, she is relying on her haptic touch memory?
Scientists suggest that sensory memory
-memories triggered by sound (echoic), smell (olfactory), sight
(visual), taste or touch (haptic memory) -bypass the logical part of the
mind and travel to the seat of instinct and memory, the primitive part
of the brain. And so, sometimes memories and sometimes just the emotion
associated with them can be vividly recalled upon being presented with
the trigger. A study at the National Institute of Neuroscience in Turin,
Italy, reveals that the same part of the brain involved in processing
our senses is also responsible for storing emotional memories. So that
effectively explains the involuntary memory recalls and fleeting
emotional impressions we may get at times. Though mostly a subconscious
association, therapists suggest this knowledge can be used to create
voluntary connects that can help people. For instance, if while feeling
an intense emotion such as happiness, you have been in the habit of
rubbing your fingertips to your forehead, the same action in the future
can instantly recall that happiness all over again even without any
other trigger. This can effectively be used in moments when you
desperately need a dose of happiness.
This ability helps patients in the process
of recovering from emotional turmoil. Those affected are advised to
avoid actions that are associated with memories that tear them apart.
This lessens the frequency and intensity of the painful memories. And
with a focus on actions or sensory experiences that evoke happy
memories, the process of healing can be hastened. Experts suggest that
this can be done by repeatedly recalling happy healing memories and
associating them with an action such as, for instance, opening your hand
wide and shutting it.
Thus, by turning involuntary memory into a
process of voluntary, deliberate recall of happy memories, one can walk
around with a bagful of happiness, calm, positivity and healing
available literally a touch, smell, taste, sound or sight away.
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