MAKE THE BEST OF THE REST OF YOUR LIFE

INTEREST 

            Each day is filled with interesting things, but you don’t pay attention unless they are of some interest to you personally.  Consequently, they don’t register.  Your mind doesn’t take seriously what you don’t pay attention to and doesn’t bother to create a memory.  As previously mentioned, however, we can arouse interest and thus register and retain much more of what we are exposed to. 

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            We naturally remember people, events and experiences that impact us in some way, but what we remember and what actually happened are often two different things. 

The past is malleable and flexible, changing as our recollection

interprets and re-explains what has happened.

Peter Berger

            Our memories are colored by our individuality.  Our unique background, conditioning and beliefs create a filter through which we see and interpret life.  That’s why people witnessing the same incident often give conflicting accounts.  They have different perceptual filters.  What you pick up from the surrounding environment may be entirely different from what I pick up.  Past experience and conditioning affect what we perceive and record.  People who grow up in a hostile environment are hyper-alert to signs of threat and may sense aggression where the next person does not. 

            Your personal experience and therefore your memory of an event is determined by your background, conditioning, senses, judgments, values and unique perceptions.  Since that filter is changing all the time, your memories can change over time.  Some of the things that influence memories and can even  change them….