How to erase memories or forget unnecessary information. How to kill negative memories
Greetings to all my readers and subscribers, and those who have just decided to join the large number of people involved in self-development and their health. This article will talk about our negative memories, which sometimes haunt us like a “snowball”. Let's learn to get rid of them effectively.
Every person makes a lot of mistakes in his life, and this is quite normal. We are not robots to do everything perfectly. But some people learn from them, while others engage in self-flagellation, remembering mistakes again and again.
Some particularly strong negative memories bring a person a feeling of embarrassment, shame or fear, and this is very bad from a psychological point of view. This greatly spoils the mood and on this basis it can, but it is very difficult to fight it.
It is common for any person to make mistakes in life, and the main thing is to learn to extract positive moments from them and not to dwell on the past. We hope the following tips will help you at least a little to forget all the bad things in your life.
1 Learn to love yourself
It is necessary in any situation to accept yourself as you are, and not to drive yourself into the rigid framework imposed by society. If you love yourself and begin to enjoy life, then it will also be favorable to you.
2 Stop dwelling on your problems and past failures
If you are constantly haunted by negative memories from the past and interfere with your normal life, you can try using this psychological technique.
Imagine the problem in full force. You need to relive it again, only in your thoughts. Remember all the details and sensations. Try to make it as bright and natural as possible. After you have reached maximum visual perception, imagine the problem in the form of some image that came to you at that moment.
Observe it from the outside, carefully looking at the details, and after a while, mentally remove it from your head, thinking about something good. You can then consolidate the result, for example, by doing push-ups. This technique of replacing negative with positive is used in the army. And it works well.
3 Look at future problems and troubles from a philosophical point of view
There is no such thing as everything going like clockwork. Every person has problems, both in the past and in the future. The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is their scale.
One person, when a car breaks down and has no money to repair it, can be completely demoralized, while a professional military man, for example, can fight for his life and be in an almost hopeless situation, but at the same time.
All problems are relative, and they mean exactly as much as we attach to them.
4 Technique “Draw a problem”
Of course, many of us are not artists, but if negative memories persist, take a piece of blank paper and draw the problem. Draw the first thing that comes to your mind. This works in the same way as the previous technique, only with the help of graphics it is possible to develop the image more strongly. After you have drawn it, burn the paper. After a few sessions, the experience should decrease significantly.
After completing these exercises, think about the good things. Life is beautiful if you approach it in a positive way! Good luck to you!
Chances are, we all have memories that people would like to forget. A disturbing incident, an embarrassing situation, humiliation, insults from a loved one - it could be anything. And no matter how hard you try to forget it, the memory resists.
There is no need to suppress all unpleasant thoughts. There are times when you need to reflect on what went wrong so you can learn from your mistakes and move on. But when the only effect of your thoughts is to prolong the pain, you need to get rid of them and move on.
Recent research suggests that people can program themselves to forget things on purpose. Here's how to forget what you don't want to remember.
Drive away bad thoughts
Making a conscious decision not to think about bad memories can help erase them forever. When you are reminded of something you don't want to think about, don't let your mind think about it.
Forget all the details associated with memories
To get rid of bad memories, forget about the details, people, and emotions associated with them. Details may include smells, sounds or images associated with an event you do not want to remember. For example, if you don't want to think about a traumatic event, remove the details associated with it from your mind. It could be the song playing in the background or the faces that were looking at you at the time.
Do this daily
Suppressing unpleasant memories is difficult. Any thought that is suppressed tends to ricochet. For example, if you want to block the emotions associated with a car accident, your brain looks for any thought about it to block it. This makes it, so to speak, more accessible. That is, when you don’t block it, the thought rushes back and again haunts you. Thus, you need to block memories on a daily basis. You need to regularly push them out of your consciousness.
Don't focus too much on blocking thoughts
Blocked thoughts tend to come to life faster and more strongly when you give them too much meaning and attention. Recognize the fact that suppressing thoughts is very difficult, but you must continue to work at it, while trying not to overdo it.
Avoid triggers
Certain images, objects, smells or places may trigger bad memories for you. Remove objects or images that are preventing you from forgetting something you don't want to remember from your mind. Avoid places or meeting people that remind you of your painful past.
Distract your mind
Another strategy you can try is to replace the bad memory with something good. If the thought of a past failure continues to haunt you, try thinking about how you succeeded at something in the past. Don't let bad memories affect your mood. As soon as they wash over you, start thinking about something good.
Associate something positive with a bad memory
Learn to associate negative thoughts with positive ones. This will help you overcome bad feelings. For example, think about your bad moment while enjoying a good movie, or do something that makes you happy. A positive association will make your negative memory less painful.
Become aware of the memory
Another theory suggests that becoming fully aware of the memory and the negative emotions associated with it will help you cope with painful emotions. Feel angry, sad, or hurt. Squeal, scream, cry. Let go of your emotions to reduce their power over you.
Use a release ritual to erase your memory
This is a mental exercise, a kind of ritual to free yourself from negative emotions or memories that have settled in your mind. Write down every detail of the memory that you want to forget. Allow yourself to write openly, knowing that no one will read it. Then you need to burn the sheet of paper. When you see that the paper is on fire, you mentally release the memory. Alternatively, you can also tear or shred the paper into small pieces, this also helps a lot.
Practice mindfulness
Learn to focus on the present moment instead of thinking and worrying about your past, which cannot be changed or predicted in the future. Don't go through your day on autopilot. Notice and pay attention to small details, sights, smells and sounds. Regular meditation practice will help you to be mindful and appreciate every moment of life.
Live your life to the fullest and create good memories
Always be around people who make you happy. If possible, travel and meet new people. Communicate as much as possible. This will help you form new good memories, which will naturally make your bad memories disappear.
Don't sit idle
Invent a new hobby or physical activity. Devote yourself to creativity and take part in arts and crafts activities. Spend your energy creating something new, or try yourself as a volunteer. You will be constantly busy and have less time to spend thinking about bad memories.
Talk to someone about it
Talking to a trusted friend or family member can help. Their advice, opinions and similar stories can give you a different perspective on things and help you forget what you don't want to remember.
By following all these tips, you will be able to erase bad memories from your memory and gain complete control over your life.
For many people, the problem of developing memory and skills memorization and assimilation of texts is more relevant than the ability to forget the past and get rid of unnecessary information.
Today you can find a large number of advertisements in newspapers, on TV and on the Internet, the headlines and announcements of which are full of promises to improve and restore memory. Anyone today can independently and easily find a lot of useful information about how to develop memory. But for the effective functioning of our memory, it is necessary not only the ability to reliably remember, store and, if necessary, reproduce the necessary information. It is also important to be able to forget it.
In mnemonics (methods and methods that facilitate memorization) there are special techniques designed for deliberate forgetting. And indeed, why, if there is involuntary and voluntary memorization, can forgetting only be involuntary?
So, the set of methods and techniques for learning to forget is called flying technology. The origin of this word dates back to Greek mythology. Lethe is a river of oblivion located in the underground kingdom of Hades. The souls who arrived in the kingdom of the dead, having tasted the water from this river, received oblivion and no longer remembered their earthly existence. This is where the expression came from - to sink into oblivion, meaning disappearance and oblivion without a trace.
What is the use of flying technology and its laws of forgetting? In what cases are they necessary?
First of all, answering these questions, it should be said that forgetting is not a definitely negative quality of human memory, since the functioning of mnemonic processes without forgetting processes will be inferior. It would be appropriate to recall the words of the outstanding Soviet psychologist Alexander Romanovich Luria - “ Many people are working on how to find ways to remember better? But no one even thinks about the question: how best to forget?»
In this article, we will look at the most effective ways that help a person forget the past, which has a traumatic effect on his psyche, and learn how to forget information that has lost its relevance.
Forgetting techniques can be used in at least two cases:
- In order to suppress unpleasant memories, especially those that have become obsessively repetitive.
- In order to erase from memory unnecessary information that simply clutters our brain.
Forgetting method #1 - Suppression
This flying technique has a psychotherapeutic orientation; with its help, you can forget memories that are traumatic to the psyche.
Often the memory of unpleasant events haunts people, and they begin to fear that these traumatic memories will begin to “pop up” again, and the more they fear this, the more fears become more intrusive. To relieve obsession (involuntarily obsessive thoughts), you can use an exercise called “burning letter":
- Memories that make you suffer and experience unpleasant sensations, describe them in detail and transfer them to a piece of paper. Then take this sheet, crumple it up and place it in some fireproof container, set it on fire. As you watch the paper burn, think about how your experiences burn, how they crumble and turn into ashes. All negative memories burned away! Throw the ashes out the window and scatter them to the wind!
The point of the “burning letter” exercise is that it helps not only to forget information, but to become the master of your memories. A person experiencing unpleasant feelings from past events can thus forget them. Of course this one forgetting process may be unpleasant, but often it gives the desired effect: a person does not turn on defense mechanisms, does not suppress memories, but, on the contrary, by describing these events, he gets rid of the memories associated with them.
Since ancient times, fire has played the role of the first psychotherapist for humans: looking at the flame, a person, in fact, underwent a psychotherapy session, cleansing himself of heavy thoughts and throwing off the weight of primitive stresses from his shoulders. And if a person has a good imagination, and he is able to vividly imagine that not just paper is burning in a fire, but also memories that traumatize his psyche, then even if he wanted to, he will not be able to reproduce them.
“TV” is another exercise often used by psychologists and psychotherapists in their practice to rid the patient of memories that weigh on him:
- Try to transfer your negative experiences as vividly as possible onto the big TV screen. Remember everything down to the smallest detail. Then take the remote control, and mentally turn off the sound, watch a “silent movie”. Then, in a similar way, deprive the visualization of clarity, contrast, and, finally, brightness. Eventually, the image fades and disappears completely. The main thing is not to rush! To make the process of forgetting more effective, you can mentally unplug the cord from the socket or throw the TV out the window. If the negative memories are not so tragic (let's say, just unpleasant), then with the help of this exercise you can translate them into the genre of comedy. Imagine these events recorded on video camera. Mentally play the recording in reverse, play it at high speed, use slow motion, put funny music on the picture, introduce a comedian into the “film,” etc. If you learn to direct your memories, it will be easier for you to manage them. Moreover, where there is humor, there is no place for neurosis.
These exercises may not help you completely get rid of memories, but they will teach you not to be afraid of them. And this is very important, because by eliminating the fear of negative memories, we eliminate the cause of their involuntary appearance.
Forgetting method #2 - Deletion
Other forgetting technique is designed to remove unnecessary information from memory that has lost its relevance and clutters up the “archive” of memory. For example, you can free mnemonic matrices from already applied information material in order to fill them with new content.
Simplest forgetting method called " flight technical cloth».
- For example, we filled a memory matrix with a series of images created from words. Then, focusing our attention on the first cell of the matrix, we take a wet rag and erase the image (shaped group) located in it. The first cell remains, we continue to see it clearly, but now it is empty, the space is free and now new associative compositions can be placed on it. Next, we sequentially, cell by cell, go through the entire matrix and, using a similar method, erase all the remaining images.
It should be noted that this method is not entirely convenient if the mnemonic matrices are large. After all, it will take a lot of time and effort to consistently erase information from each individual cell. In such cases, it is appropriate to apply the laws of forgetting by Solomon Veniaminovich Shereshevsky, a Russian-Soviet journalist and professional mnemonist, who, speaking with intellectual numbers in front of a huge audience, was forced not only to remember large sequences of numbers, words, incoherent syllables, etc., but also to erase everything this is from memory before the next performance.
- « Worried that the individual sessions do not get mixed up with each other, I mentally erase the board and, as it were, cover it with a film that is completely hopeless and impenetrable. When the session ends, I mentally remove it... I’m still talking to the audience, and at this time I kind of crush this film with my hands, hearing how it crunches.“- Shereshevsky shared his secrets. So he deleted information immediately from the entire field of the mnemonic matrix, and not from each individual cell. If such a method did not help to effectively forget information, Solomon Veniaminovich resorted to seemingly paradoxical methods of forgetting: “ In order to remember, people write down... It seemed funny to me, and I decided to do it my way: since they write down, therefore, they do not need to remember. This means that if I write it down, I will know that I don’t need to remember it... And I began to apply this law of forgetting in small things: in some errands, in surnames, in telephone numbers».
In an effort to remember important information, most people tend to write it down. And the more often we write down what we want to remember, the less we use our memory. This is a direct path to memory atrophy, because without receiving enough load, it works less and less. As a result, people come to the sad conclusion that they have a bad memory, although they themselves are often to blame for this.
Try not to use notepads and notebooks, trust your memory, load it so that it can work fully ( exercises for memory development), and then she will stop letting you down. Only mark something on paper if you need to forget it!
The process of mastering the skills of forgetting (as well as memorizing) proceeds in a manner consistent with the laws of Hegelian dialectics. At a certain point, the experience of voluntary forgetting leads to a qualitative leap, allowing one to forget unnecessary information only through willpower without the use of special forgetting methods.
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Instructions
The reason for the obsession of memories of a person significant to us is the incompleteness of the action. You communicated in the past and experienced pleasant moments, but for certain reasons your life paths diverged. But the emotional attachment to the person remains, and therefore thoughts regularly arise about the possibility of renewing the relationship. You can stop bringing back past events to memory by completing the action.
Write this person a letter. Let it not reach the recipient. It is important that in your letter you speak as openly as possible about your feelings. Write down all your thoughts about how dear this person was to you, how you felt next to him. Tell him in a letter how your life is going now and how it has changed after the breakup. This letter must be written down on paper. During the recording process, you work on your feelings. For a long time they accumulated inside you, but did not find a way out. Now you are releasing them.
We tend to idealize people from the past. Resentments and negative character traits are gradually forgotten. Only pleasant moments of communication arise in memory. To break the ideal, try to find out about this person through friends or through social networks. It is likely that after collecting information about the object of memory, you will realize that it is far from your ideas. Life moves forward and it changes people. Now we are noticeably different from who we were 5-10 years ago. Sometimes it turns out that people with whom we enjoyed communicating in our youth become completely uninteresting to us in adulthood.
Focus on your present. The past should not burden you, since it has already happened and cannot be returned. Let it be left behind. You are here and now. This attitude is the key to a successful life. The ability to throw away the burden of the past days in time gives space for action.
Free your material world from oppressive memories. Get rid of all things that remind you of the person. If you still have his personal belongings, photographs, gifts and cards, collect them in a drawer and hide them away or throw them in the trash. Let the things of the past not bother your soul.
If the breakup happened recently, try to change the situation. The first weeks are the hardest to get through. Ask to visit your parents or friends. Take a vacation and go on a little trip. Let new pleasant experiences come into your life. Take a new breath, because life is just beginning. Breaking up always opens up new possibilities. It brings you back to thinking about the meaning of life and prospects for development. There is a reason to do a spring cleaning in the most inaccessible corners of your personality and get long-forgotten resources from there.
In every person's life there are incidents that one would like to forget. Any memory brings incredible pain. Of course, over time it becomes dull, but a person wants to completely forget about the bad. This can be done in several ways.
Negative memories arise after a person has experienced events that caused him anger, fear, resentment, hatred or disappointment.
To try to let go of any memories, you need to understand that it is thoughts and thoughts about him that bring pain. Many people are simply unable to understand who exactly is to blame for what happened exactly like this. There is no need to replay in your head many times what has already happened. This will help you forget bad memories as quickly as possible.
It will be best when you once objectively evaluate the entire current situation and the feelings that it produced on you. Say it all out loud or write it down on a blank sheet of paper. You don’t want anyone to hear this; forgetting is your own business.
Psychologists say that after every unpleasant situation that occurs, you should first of all accept yourself exactly as you are. Don’t get angry at others, and end each memory with these thoughts:
- Each person did exactly what he wanted.
- You shouldn't judge others, it's their own business.
- If I made a mistake, then I have the right to do so, just like others.
- This situation gave me a new experience.
- Now everything is in the past, this situation will no longer bother me.
Methods on how to forget bad memories in your life
A powerful weapon against unpleasant memories is an active imagination. There are several types of imagination that can easily help in the fight against past memories.
They are:
1. Substitution of bad memories
2. Rewind time
3. Generating memories
These methods work with the help of your imagination and imagination. You need to imagine any situation as realistically as possible.
As soon as you start to have negative memories of the person who hurt you, try to imagine a pleasant situation with this person. This method will help you quickly dull the pain and forgive your offender. After this it is much easier to let go of this person.
For many people, negativity is retained in their memory more than any positive situations. Human memories must always be in balance. If positive memories are not enough, then it is better to use your imagination. Start dreaming, imagine that everything came true exactly as you wished.
Once there are enough positive memories in your mind, the person will again feel happy and joyful. In this state, he will understand that everything in his life will only be good. With the help of generated memories, a person will set himself up for positivity.
Clearing yourself of bad memories is not an easy task, but if you work on yourself every day, you will soon see excellent results and be able to forget them.
