Reminiscing About Your Past

Massaged By Good Memories

If it weren’t for the brain’s ability to integrate and retrieve memories, our pasts would be nothing but a big mystery. Can you imagine going through life not remembering what experiences you had during your childhood and adolescence? Reminiscing about your past can put you in a mental state of relaxation, as if you’re being massaged by good memories.

Reminiscing is a form of living in the past, but not the pathological kind. Most people who reminisce do so because they have wonderful memories which they can revisit. Good memories can help alleviate stress, anxiety and even depressive symptoms. Utilize your bank of good memories to help you with your mental health; it’s a tool that is often underutilized by many people.

It’s mentally and emotionally healthy to revisit good memories about your childhood and adolescence, because it makes you appreciative of your life in the past. By looking back in time, you can analyze what you did right and how you can potentially repeat it again in the present. There is so much to learn from the past, but make sure to revisit it in moderation; too much time spent in the past can distract you from the present.

One effective way of reminiscing about your past is by playing music that you enjoyed listening to when you were younger. Whether that’s Billy Joel, Tiesto or Jedi Mind Tricks, it doesn’t matter. Find an artist who you really liked growing up and listen to them again. You will notice an instant transformation in your mind: your attention in the present moment will suddenly shift into the memories associated with that artist.

It truly is an amazing experience to allow certain melodies from the past to help you reminisce; music is sometimes like a vehicle, helping transport you back into time. Another tool for reminiscing about your past is meditation. By practicing mindfulness, your mind will be hit by a ton of thoughts from your childhood, adolescence and the present moment.

By experiencing thoughts from the past during your mindfulness sessions, you will be able to recall events which were previously buried in the depths of your mind; some good and some bad. But it doesn’t matter. Mindfulness is about being nonjudgmental and fully present in the moment. But when that moment incorporates reminiscing about good events and scenarios from the past, it feels like your mind is being massaged by invisible hands.

Here is your new formula for revisiting the past: mindfulness + reminiscing + music, or “mindfully reminiscing over good music.”

Are you Ready? (This is Defeating Stigma Mindfully)