Memories
Daily Meditation 571–9/19/2023
We can often be haunted by old memories.
Some may be from very young ages.
Others more recent.
Some could be traumas.
Others just pure feel-good nostalgia.
We shouldn’t necessarily shy away from bad memories.
But we should beware to spend too much time fantasizing on the good ones.
The bad can help us to break through moments we were victims, identifying where we went wrong, who we wrongly trusted, where we became addicted, how we were hurt.
The good can only serve to fill us with aching longing — a relationship we enjoyed, our deceased spouse, parent or child, the first time we played a game.
Another thing we can do, particularly with the more damaging memories, is follow Dr. Jordan Peterson’s advice — “If old memories still hurt you or make you cry, write them down fully and completely.”
Writing things down is a bit of an understated superpower.
Not only does writing (unsent) letters to those who we hate or have harmed us help us to heal, as we discussed this week, but writing down memories will help heal, too.
Thinking about things is a train station.
Your thoughts go outwards in every direction, scattering and ricocheting around inside your head.
Speaking is better — your thoughts stay mostly linear, some sidetracks as parallels, but generally moving you forward.
Writing, however…
Writing happens so slowly that you are mostly forced into details and to stay moving just one step in front of the other as you ease through things.
This process can be used for the hurtful memories, but also for the “aching” nostalgia.
Either way — don’t let your memories control you, jerking you around like taffy.
Take the time to meditate on them and turn them into a means with which you grow and mature, mending old scars.
Hit the ✉️Email Subscribe✉️ button to get these DAILY in your inbox!
Follow for daily philosophical meditations.
These are distillations from my coming book “YouDaimonia: the Ancient Philosophy of Human Flourishing.”
