The Act of Remembrance
It’s human nature to forget, but we need to avert that trait for better living
It’s easy, extremely so at that, to get carried away with our current situations, whether they are good, not so good, or bad. When that happens, we act based on what we think in that particular time, forgetting what we previously thought about.
It’s true that some things need immediate thinking and analyses before execution, but there are many occurrences that require us to look back in time to remember what we once thought or planned that those things will pan out.
That act of remembering your forgone plans or thoughts will help you a whole lot in your personal growth journey. Because remembering something goes a long way to do depicting how mindful you are, and also helps you make quick decisions.
The act of remembering initial thoughts and plans serve as an effective guide to executing them. You already know what you want, what might stop you from achieving it, and the contingency measures in case it doesn’t work out. This act also portrays someone as mentally organized and agile. That is, being able to use your mental strength and brain storage space.
The act of remembrance enables us to go back in time and relive past good moments we had. Moments spent alone, or in company with others. Others such as loved ones or strangers. All these create nostalgic feelings that can go a long way to alleviate the current mood — that may not be good.
In other words, the act of remembrance of good tidings from the past can make the current situation, which is not as favorable, bearable, at the least.
This is what we crave all the time. To remember and to be remembered. This is why we create memories through photos, marks on the ground, and other inanimate delineations.
The act of remembrance is also worth it because it aids gratitude a whole lot. Because when you take many steps back mentally and cognitively, it always allows you the chance to relish a good moment that could have been rid easily. Thus, making you appear ungrateful. When in fact, you only forgot. This is the most important aspect of remembrance. Because as humans, we tend to easily forget good things and take them for granted. The only thing our brain tries to capitalize on is negative things instead.
This is why we must teach ourselves and train our brains to learn to remember. For the sole purpose of better living — through showing gratitude, mindfulness, and overall, our personal growth.
The act of remembrance is ingrained in all of us. But exercising that trait is what distinguishes us from one another. People who practice the act of remembrance live more fulfilled lives. Because instead of bothering over things, they simply remember what they did the last time that helped them get through it and simply implement them. Worse still, they use the memory from the past as a template to create solutions to their current problems.
How do we remember things then?
As not everyone has the capacity to store things in their brain, to retain, and to retrieve them when compared to the others. Asides this fact, there are efficient ways to learn to remember stuff when it’s escaping you, or if you need it for any situation. These include:
- Making up your mind
Making up our minds may sound fickle since we tend to sift and drift from our decisions a lot of time. But it’s also an extremely good approach to remembering things that will serve us. Making up your mind works in deciding that you never want to let go of fond memories or decisions and thoughts and plans that you’ve made. Once you set it in stone in your mind, you’ll most likely always remember.
- Mindfulness and real-time reflection
When you’re stuck in a rut, it’s always harder to remember the things we’ve said to ourselves that we would do or not do. It’s not that we don’t know them, but more like we couldn’t retrieve them at that point. In this case, mindfulness and real-time reflection will assist you a whole lot. These help you pause in-between whatever you’ve found yourself in. And ask relevant questions that will help you pull the string of thoughts, plans, and decisions you previously made. In order to scale through your present situation. This will assist you after you’ve made up your mind and decided on something.
- Consequences and rewards
When it comes to personal growth journey, we are bound to fall off the wagon and relapse to old unhealthy habits. Now, this is normal. But constantly doing so will not propel you either. Especially when you aren’t predicting the consequences and rewards of each action. Look at it this way, if you crave to be a better version of yourself, you’ll always want to stick to more high scores over the low ones — contrary to what a strongly opinionated person might be thinking.
But when you attach a reward to something, it helps you work hard in remembering what it takes to pull through. Creating a reward could be as simple as feeling good with yourself and boosted self-esteem after accomplishment. Consequences, on the other hand, is the reverse of a reward. The ability to think about the consequences of your actions makes it easier to remember a better path to tread. Living through the consequences of your actions also makes it easier to remember for next time.
- Fond memories and mental souvenirs
Creating fond memories can be done through photo taking, video making, inscriptions, text messaging, or creating a token, omen, that will trigger remembrance, once you encounter them.
This method works but only in phases. For example, when you’re no longer in love with an ex who treated you poorly, it’s hard to look at past events and memories with them. Ugly experiences makes this point quite daunting. As people prefer to remember happier times than not. Even though the brain dwells on the negative more.
This is where inspirational quotes and personal affirmations come in. When you either ingrain them to remember when difficult times strike. Or create them out of your present situation for next time.
This is not all disadvantageous. As a past ugly event has preventative effects from future harm — due to the act of remembrance. This means that keeping a mental souvenir of your past pain and anguish, helps you avoid making the same mistake, or falling into the same trap twice.
The act of remembrance cannot be overemphasized. Considering the fact that it helps you grow in so many areas of life. Mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, and professionally.
Alongside these, remembering something you’ve once carefully thought about and curated to do or not do, always means that you’re mentally organized which makes you a strong contender against sweet talkers or fraudsters, even. The reason being that you know your mind, what you want and don’t. And would easily stick by them by simply remembering to — which in turn, triggers a cascade of gratitude. The most important feature of the act of remembrance.
Always remember who you are, what you stand for, and what you don’t. Acknowledge who once helped you. Don’t forget at least one friend’s birthday date.
You are privileged to be reading this article up to this point. Don’t forget that. Remember also, you have the key to your own destiny.
Most importantly, always remember you’re still alive, here, and now.
