Jeffrey C. Long

This morning while sipping a latte at Moxie Java in Twin Falls, I decided to listen to an old concert of Vida Blue. Suddenly I was catapulted back to 9 months ago when I first discovered the band, headlined by Phish keyboardist Page McConnell. Why did this music throw me back in time? Because at the time I was living by myself in Twin Falls, waiting the sale of our home in Soap Lake so that my family could move to live with me. I was experiencing many things rather intensely as a result of the time apart from my family. I can sense the same emotional memories will be conjured up when Mariner’s baseball season begins. One of the ways that I whiled the time away was to listen to the Mariner’s on the internet.

I’ve been experiencing other emotional memories as well, of events that happened many years ago. It has been remarkable the intensity of these things, as I remember feelings that happened a while ago. Why are some memories stronger? Where does the attachment of emotions to memories come from?

Ashok Hegde, assistant professor at WFU Baptist Medical Center i Winston-Salem, North Carolina points out in this Psychology today article that

One of the hallmarks of memories that last is a close association with emotion. Norepinephrine, a brain chemical similar to adrenaline, is released in the brain during such emotional situations. Norepinephrine lowers the gate so that information can go into permanent storage.

A lesson should be learned from this. It is important where we invest our emotions. Some emotions are natural byproducts of our experiences, some jubilant, some depressing. But there are other areas of our life where we have some choice in the matter. I’ve been notorious for having a bad memory of many things, while I remember other things intensely. I am beginning to wonder if this means that I have poured a disproportionate amount of emotions into some things and thus remember them intensely, while I have invested little emotions into things that were very meaningful.

Regardless, it is important to remember a few things about memory [playful language intended]. First, our memory is susceptible to misappropriating accuracy in the reliving of an event. The Seven Sins of Memory from Psychology Today says “[there are many] different ways in which memory can get us into trouble. Sometimes we forget the past and at other times we distort it; some disturbing memories haunt us for years.”

Second, while we may have some ability to help us remember things that happen to us currently by experiencing these moments emotionally, I don’t think there is much to be able to do with strong memories from the past. My experience has been that there are traumas I’ve experienced that I wish I could forget, and that there are some irreconcilable events I remember that throw me into confusion when they are stirred up. What I’m learning is that trying to rid myself of the memories is like trying to not think of a pink elephant. The things from our past are what have made us today. The important thing is to learn how to integrate them into ourselves and find their meaning in our life, rather then seeking to deny their impact.