The Mutable Nature of Memory: How Our Minds Shape the Past to Guide the Future
Memory: A Living Story, Not a Perfect Record
We like to think of memory as a flawless recording of the past, but in reality, it is a fluid, ever-changing process shaped by emotion, meaning, and survival instincts. Each time we recall an event, we reconstruct it—sometimes altering details, filling in gaps, or even creating false memories. Trauma can disrupt this process, leaving memories fragmented, intrusive, or difficult to integrate, contributing to PTSD. Yet, memory is not meant to trap us in the past—it exists to guide our future, helping us learn, grow, and navigate life with greater awareness. By understanding memory’s mutability, we can reshape our narratives, turning even painful experiences into sources of wisdom and resilience.
What Are Your Emotional Needs?
Just as we need air to breathe and water to drink, we also have distinct emotional needs. If these needs are not met or are imbalanced, just as a lack of food would risk starvation, our health tends to suffer.
And yet, as obvious as this may seem, when it comes to our mental health, these needs can be overlooked, instead the focus all too often is on the resulting symptoms, anxiety, panic, depression – to name a few.
Father Christmas had you hypnotised, here’s how.
According to folklore, Father Christmas is a plump old man who can work magic. And yet, incredibly, clever kids the world over believe in Santa with all their hearts, why?
Although this as a bit of festive fun, the important point is perhaps obvious, it’s not just Father Christmas that we come to belief at an early age, its all the other stuff we inherit in those formative years, some of which can be severely life-limiting.
The Safety of Sadness
Everyone of us has experienced sadness at some point in their life, often when something we cared for is lost to us – a person, a pet, a part of our life, a part of ourselves even.
These events can very easily move us off balance, cause a feeling of sadness and in more significant cases a prolonged depression of mood and motivation. As painful as these periods can be, it is helpful to understand something of why our bodies react in this way.
This place of stuckness can be unbelievably painful for people. But with the right support, people can find their way out, to reengage with life and the fullness of what it has to offer - and what they have to offer it.