The role memories can play in our life

Us humans have the incredible ability to store experiences in our brain, as well as attach emotional significance to them.

Research has said that our brains can store the equivalent of 2.5 million gigabytes of digital memory, or another way to put it, we can essentially hold as much information in our memory as what’s contained on the entire internet. 

Whether or not that’s entirely accurate, we are born with and have access to this fascinating functionality within the mind that has evolved over time and is a powerful tool that we can use to our advantage.

Just think about something in your life ten years ago, around the year 2012. 

What do you recall? It could be anything.

You see what you did right there?

Practically without any effort, from out of thin air, a memory.

What’s crazy is that sometimes we don’t think about something for years, or we totally forget about it altogether, and then just like that, a simple reminder and poof, there it is. 

It’s inevitable that we all have a combination of positive and loving memories, as well as negative and sad ones.

While we may not have had much control over some of the negative ones that occurred and impacted us, we hold the power to choose whether or not we feed and strengthen them through our attention. 

Instead of making a habit of recalling past experiences that don’t benefit our lives and unnecessarily punishing ourselves, we can turn our focus towards the plethora of memories that fill our hearts with joy, love and laughter.

Just think for a second about a moment that brought a smile to your face, another that made you feel appreciated and valued, or one that made you excited or proud of yourself.

These precious memories that are stored within your brain are yours and only yours. You may have shared the experience with others, but nobody can access and feel them in the unique way that you see them through your mind’s eye. 

Despite the highs and lows that we will encounter on our journey, we can always decide to look within and recall and feel the emotion that these uplifting memories shine on our lives. 

Choose to cherish your ability to remember, as well as all of the memories that have impacted your life and helped make you who you are. 

“Sometimes you will never know the true value of a moment, until it becomes a memory.” – Dr. Seuss

The Wisdom of Impermanence

Life is dynamic, constantly shifting and changing. 

Everything that is will one day no longer be. 

Understanding the impermanence of life can be a very powerful and beneficial tool. 

On one hand, when we face adversity, being able to tell ourselves that this situation will not last forever can be a simple yet effective reminder that assists us in getting through the difficult time. 

Every moment that we are experiencing the unfortunate circumstance, we are actually enduring and persevering. 

On the flip side, when we are in a more calm and content state, we can leverage life’s impermanence by expanding our capacity to see and appreciate the abundance that surrounds us. 

Every second that ticks is one second closer to no longer existing. Not just for ourselves, but for our loved ones, our friends, our pets, our species and the planet that we call home. 

When we take the time to absorb this reality and not just push it off to the side to deal with at a later date, we gain much more clarity on what’s important to us, what must be eliminated and how we want to live the remaining time we have left. 

By recognizing the finite time we truly have, that today or tomorrow or the next could very well be our last, we can learn to strengthen our resilience during tough moments while increasing our awareness of and gratitude for all that we’ve been blessed with and still have to cherish and enjoy. 

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.” – Steve Jobs

Impressions and Judgements

Anytime an impression comes into focus (an impression being anything from a random thought to a situation occurring right in front of you) it’s typically and quickly followed by a judgement about it.

For example:

Impression

-Random thought – I have a lot of chores to get done and not much time to do them 

Judgement

-My day is going to be so stressful, leading to feelings of frustration and anxiety 

Impression 

-Situation occurring right in front of you – Someone just cut me off on the highway 

Judgement

-This person is an asshole, I almost hit them, leading to feelings of resentment and possibly taking your emotions out on others because of it. 

What the Stoics taught was that these impressions are not good or bad, they just are.

They exist outside of us, they may knock at the door of our mind, but it’s ultimately on us to decide what they mean to us. We can actively choose to view them indifferently, as nothing more than a thought or situation coming into our awareness in real time. 

Marcus Aurelius once said, “The only thing that changes and stirs the mind is the mind, and when external objects are presented to it, it has them conform to the judgements that it deems itself justified in making about them.” 

A deep understanding of this can enable us to slowly weaken the detrimental impulse of judging each and every impression that we become mindful of. 

We can bend and reshape our perception of reality by starting to recognize the incoming impression and deciding that we don’t want to let this lead to negative emotions and feelings.

We can ask ourselves, “What is this impression of?”, and define or describe it so that it loses its power. 

If your judgement comes into play and you feel emotions arise, you can begin to see the story that your mind creates to justify the reaction. 

This mental chatter is normal, but it’s imperative to comprehend that you are not this bickering.

Detach from it and just observe the judgmental thoughts as if they were being projected on a screen in front of you. 

Each time a judgement about indifferent impressions comes to light, remind yourself as soon as you can that your chief aim is to live in a cheerful and peaceful state and that being caught up in these intruding mental objects prevents you from doing so. 

“The first thing is not to be carried away by the intensity of an impression. You should say: Hold on a moment, impression. Let me see what you are and what you are an impression of. Let me put you to the test.” – Epictetus

The Calm and Kind Approach

Life is filled with inconveniences, unnecessary annoyances and delays that disrupt our peace of mind and put us in a bad mood.

And when it comes to people, we typically lash out and use them as punching bags when things aren’t going the way we believe they should.

We’ve all been there…it’s normal and human. 

But instead of instinctively reacting with anger and frustration, which not only leads us down a negative path that day but also strengthens the habit of repeating this reaction in the future, wouldn’t it be much more pleasant to respond calmly and kindly? 

And I’m not necessarily saying to just be passive and let others walk all over you, but more so just approach each situation from a composed perspective. 

When we are pissed off our emotions get in the way and take charge, typically ending with us regretting saying or doing something. 

On the other hand, when we are calm we can visually and mentally see with more clarity. And when we have a better view of a circumstance, we have higher odds of controlling our responses in a productive manner.

There are endless variables in life that are out of our control, they always have been and they always will be. You can continue to subconsciously meet them with resistance and fill your existence with suffering or you can consciously choose to calmly greet them with kindness and understanding. 

The sooner you’re able to accept this indisputable point on the dichotomy of control, the quicker you can begin to focus your energy on what is in your control, such as your character, your perspective and how you choose to respond to the events that present themselves.

“If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.” – Marcus Aurelius 

Putting Perception into Question

Our species is blessed with the fascinating intricacies of the mind. 

Humans are capable of incredible feats and possess vast potential that most of us never tap into even a fraction of. 

Regardless of what you pursue in your life, we all (at least most of us) deserve to live with an abundance of joy and love in our hearts.

Yet, even with this incredible and unfathomable brain of ours, whether we achieve tremendous heights professionally or not, many of us live with a persistent sense of fear, agitation, dissatisfaction, worry or doubt. 

Why is this? 

And more importantly, how do we overcome it so that we can bathe in a life overflowed with contentment and peace? 

This can be achieved by putting our perceptions into question. 

Built up over the course of a lifetime, most of the day is spent pre-programmed by our deeply rooted habits. 

We tend to live on auto-pilot, allowing our mind to be the one in the driver’s seat, thinking, acting and reacting just as it has always done so.

And as the saying goes, if you keep doing what you’ve always been doing, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always been getting. 

A vicious cycle indeed.

But, it’s possible to observe and be a witness to the daily thoughts in our head, as well as the emotions we feel from those thoughts and the actions that typically follow them.

No other living thing (as far as we know) is capable of this ability to not just think, but be aware of the thought as you do so. 

With this in mind, we can learn to not only become more aware of the circumstances that bring us negative emotions, but begin to analyze why they do so. 

This enables you to monitor the rampant thoughts that have previously gone unmonitored and typically led to the feelings you don’t want to feel. 

By questioning why you are perceiving a situation in a certain way, you are accessing a level of consciousness that has rarely, if ever, been utilized before. 

Understanding that our thoughts and views are pliable and can be molded to best serve us is wisdom. 

And making the choice to put in the effort to adjust our perceptions so that we can minimize negativity and enhance positivity is what the wise do. 

In this realm of mindfulness, favorable change can be made that will last a lifetime. 

“Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them.” – Epictetus

Past = Present Conditions. Future = Present Actions

How satisfied are you with your life right now at this precise moment? 

Whether your head is in the clouds and you’re out of this world happy, or you’re just feeling so so, it’s all determined by your past. 

There’s a buddhist quote that says, 

“If you want to know your past, look into your present conditions. If you want to know your future, look into your present actions.”

Everything that you’ve done to this point in your existence has brought you to your present conditions. Your thoughts, actions, decisions and indecisions of the past have paved the unique path that you are on.

If you’re not content with the circumstances that you find yourself in, look no further than at your very own self and nobody else. 

We all live in our own reality. What other people say and do steer our lives only in relation to how much we choose to allow it to. 

Fortunately there’s hope for the future, as our present actions create our destiny. 

Starting right now you have a very special opportunity, one far greater in potential impact than you could ever possibly fathom. A once in a lifetime chance to become the captain of your inner world’s ship and master of the outer worlds seas. 

What can you begin doing today that you know will positively influence the rest of your life?

How can you go about doing it and sticking to it so that your future is guaranteed to shine bright? 

The past is forever over and done with. 

You no longer have to accept anything lagging from it that currently holds you back from being your ideal self. 

Take control of your present actions and lead yourself towards the future that only you are capable of creating. 

Transcending External Events

We are all so consumed by our lives. 

Our thoughts dominate the narrative of our reality and we rarely intentionally take any down time to turn it off. 

So we go about our days just as we have done so for years prior, allowing our pre-programmed mind machine to operate as it does. 

Some of us are filled with excitement and enthusiasm while others predominantly feel anxious, stressed, envious and a handful of other negative emotions. 

Some are able to approach whatever happens head on by pushing negativity to the sidelines and charging full steam ahead forward, minimally impacted. Others allow certain circumstances to negatively impact their state of mind, enabling them to feel that way for hours afterwards, potentially even for days or weeks, and ultimately turning into a part of their overall personality. 

Which one are you? Or are you a hybrid of both?

How would it feel to become more like the first and less like the second?

This can be achieved by learning to transcend external events. 

It is absolutely inevitable that people will annoy you and piss you off. That you will get stuck in traffic or get a flat tire. That the thing you’ve been looking forward to will get cancelled.

Life is filled with instances where you will simply be shit out of luck. 

But that is one way that makes our existence special. If everything was always perfect and went exactly according to plan, we’d go CRAZY. 

These annoyances and inconveniences are thrown at us so that we can learn from them and strengthen ourselves. 

When we stop looking at them as individual catastrophes and start the practice of using them to our advantage, we can begin to see them as just another event occurring in our life that will come and go just like all the others before it. 

Marcus Aurelius once said, “It’s time you realized that you have something in you more powerful and miraculous than the things that affect you and make you dance like a puppet.”

Life is uncertain and impermanent. 

By discarding misperceptions and judgements from our minds, we can live in a greater state of peace and composure that brings us more clarity and understanding. 

Armed with this wisdom, we can mentally go beyond life’s trivialities and leave them in the rearview. 

“A man standing by a spring of clear, sweet water and cursing it. While the fresh water keeps on bubbling up. He can shovel mud into it, or dung, and the stream will carry it away, wash itself clean, remain unstained. To have that. How? By working to win your freedom. Hour by hour. Through patience, honesty, humility.“ – Marcus Aurelius 

Three Stoic Pillars to Living the Good Life

If you take the time to really break down what is involved in living the good life, you’ll discover that there are only a few principles that you have to strictly adhere to.

Awareness. Acceptance. Appreciation. 

Awareness

There’s no way around it, if you want to live a joyful life you must become aware of how you currently live your life. 

How do you go about your daily operations, what do you think in your head, what actions do you take, how do you respond to external events, etc?

In order to improve your life you need to improve your ability to objectively observe your life.

Think of it like a third party observer within your head, a spectator, one that doesn’t judge harshly or criticize but simply watches, observes and witnesses the movie unrolling of you living your life. 

Throughout each day bring attention to what is going on in your mind and mindfully ask if it aligns with the kind of thoughts your ideal self would be thinking. Repeat the process for the way you act and react in social settings with those you care about. 

Are you allowing your impulses to steer the wheel and do as they please, or are you carefully considering your options to ensure you select the right one? 

We cannot control what happens externally in life (the upcoming pillar), but we have, if we intentionally decide to use it, full control over how we choose to perceive what does happen. 

If we make it a habit to view things from a perspective that minimizes negativity and enhances positivity, despite whatever circumstance we may find ourselves in, then we are on the path to living the good life. 

“It is not external events themselves that cause us distress, but the way in which we think about them, our interpretation of their significance. It is our attitudes and reactions that give us trouble. We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them.” – Epictetus

Acceptance

Similar to the serenity prayer, we have to constantly remind ourselves of what is in our control and what isn’t.

Obsessing over what is out of our hands is a recipe for a miserable existence. And if you become more aware of your daily mental processes and still continue to focus on what is out of your control, then you’re intentionally self sabotaging and preventing yourself from a much happier life. 

By shifting our attention to doing our absolute best in regards to the things in our control while simultaneously working to accept the things that we cannot change, we can start to pave a route towards living in a much brighter atmosphere and begin to minimize the perceived pain and suffering we’ve unconsciously and unnecessarily been causing ourselves. 

What is in our control:

-being more mindful of our thoughts, actions and responses to external events

-choosing to be kinder to ourselves and others despite the situation

-not believing each and every one of our thoughts to always be accurate

-deciding to no longer dwell on the past or stress about the future but rather live in the present

-accepting that whatever happens externally is out of our hands and that we can choose to live a happy life even through inevitable and difficult times

“It’s unfortunate that this has happened. No. It’s fortunate that this has happened and I’ve remained unharmed by it— not shattered by the present or frightened of the future. Does what’s happened keep you from acting with justice, generosity, self-control, sanity, prudence, honesty, humility, straightforwardness, and all the other qualities that allow a person’s nature to fulfill itself? So remember this principle when something threatens to cause you pain: the thing itself was no misfortune at all; to endure it and prevail is great good fortune.” – Marcus Aurelius 

Appreciation

We are all going to die. 

Some much sooner than others, but the fact still remains that we will depart from this world. 

Just think about how many people have passed since you’ve been born, especially those born after you.  

Nothing lasts forever, both the good and the bad. 

So when the bad times do come, which they will, we can build an impenetrable fortress of gratitude deep within ourselves that enables us to tend to our wounds but still feel immense appreciation for all that still is in our lives. 

And when the good times are here, we must make it a habit to focus on fully appreciating them without spending time wishing for what we don’t have.

Epictetus once said that we must take great care with what we have while the world let’s us have it. 

We all have a great deal to be thankful for in our lives, so much we were provided with at birth, for free, that we literally couldn’t live without. 

If we make it our main objective to live each and every day with appreciation at the top of our mind we will ensure ourselves a fast pass to living the good life. 

“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero

Turning a negative emotion into a positive one

Our impulses are potent. 

They’ve been hardwired into our brain through repetition over the course of many years. 

Some impulses are beneficial to our survival while plenty of others cause us unnecessary distress. 

When we are stressed out or angry about the million and one little things going on in our life, we release a stress hormone called cortisol. In this flight or fight mode our body literally shuts down our immune system. 

And when we are in this state of emotion often enough, our body weakens and we often get tired and ill because energy is no longer being conserved for the immune system but rather sending resources to focus on the anxiety that is occurring in our life. 

Interesting fact: Stress hormones like Cortisol are so effective at shutting down the immune system that doctors inject it into people receiving organ transplants. This literally prevents the immune system from doing its job of fighting and rejecting the foreign object. 

To make matters worse, each time we get into these stressful states of mind we shut down our brain’s ability to see and think clearly while unconsciously reinforcing the bad habit that led to us building up the tension to begin with.

Suffice to say, these negative emotions are extremely detrimental to both our physical and mental well-being. 

If your life isn’t in immediate danger, continuing to live at these elevated levels of stress that’s all too common in today’s world is a sure fire way to reduce your lifespan. 

But enough with the negativity! 

It’s time to focus on confronting the negative with the positive.

The next time you find yourself starting to get worked up, possibly by recognizing the tension in your body or by certain thoughts you begin telling yourself, try to take a step back and breathe for just a quick second or two. 

Become aware of the big picture and ask yourself questions such as: 

How can I take care of myself right now? 

What would be the best thing to focus my attention on?

Is this situation worth harming my body and mind for? 

Can I replace this emotion of frustration with a positive one like compassion? 

It certainly won’t be easy and it’s a guarantee that there will be moments where your old triggers override your reasoning, but with practice you can begin to minimize the damage that would typically turn into a blown out stressfest. 

Even better, the habit of impulsive reactions will naturally weaken over time while the new and more positive patterns will consume more attention, leading to a better quality of life. 

“Every habit and capability is confirmed and grows in its corresponding actions, walking by walking, and running by running . . . therefore, if you want to do something, make a habit of it, if you don’t want to do that, don’t, but make a habit of something else instead. The same principle is at work in our state of mind. When you get angry, you’ve not only experienced that evil, but you’ve also reinforced a bad habit, adding fuel to the fire.” – Epictetus 

Living on borrowed time

Just as we were somehow granted life, some day we will have to return it.

Our existence is based on borrowed time.

Let that soak in for a moment and don’t try to dismiss it. 

We are living on borrowed time and a period will come when it’ll have to be given back. 

Amongst all of the cares and concerns that fill up our daily lives, the fact remains that it’ll cease to exist at some point. 

Poof, into thin air. 

We all have our own struggles to deal with, some certainly worse than others. But identifying ourselves from a filter through them is optional. 

It’s up to us to choose how we perceive the ups and downs as well as how much of our limited time we want to spend being consumed by what is or could go wrong. 

In the end, what can really be worse than ceasing to exist?

Practice taking a mental step back every so often. 

From this perspective try to discard the trivial and focus on what truly matters. 

Learn to accept what isn’t in your control and do your best to work on what is in your power. 

Each and every day, appreciate the seconds that you have while you still have them with whomever you have them with. 

Time is ticking. 

“Keep the spirit inside you undamaged, as if you might have to give it back at any moment.” – Marcus Aurelius