• Memories create the series of habits, associations, and patterns that make us who we are today.
• We are a product of our past. Our present is molded by it, and our future is dependent on it.
• But the past doesn’t have to define us. It isn’t real.
• Our memories are as plastic as our brain.
• With a proper understanding of memory, we can manipulate it to let go of the past, push through our fears, and experience the bliss.
• There are 3 steps involved in the process of converting an experience into a memory:

1. Acquisition: Acquisition occurs when our brain, working in conjunction with the bodyguard at its base, receives and processes external stimuli. As we read this paragraph, our brain is starting to form a neural network based on the information it’s acquiring.
2. Consolidation: Most of the information that comes into our brain is lost in short-term memory, but some of it becomes a part of our long-term memory. To implant an experience into our long-term memory, neurons are connected through pathways that collectively form large neural networks. These are physical maps that materialize as structures in our brain representing a memory. The process of strengthening these pathways to build the construction of a memory network is called consolidation. How each memory (whether a happy or painful memory) is consolidated depends on various factors, including how much attention was paid to the event, the emotional impact it had, and the number of senses it engaged. If simply skim this, it will fade away from our memory. If focus on the content and apply it, will gain the experiential memory required to consolidate the knowledge into our subconscious.
3. Retrieval and Reconsolidation: Retrieval is when we pull a past experience from brain and bring it into the present. During retrieval, brain activates a neuron that triggers the other neurons in that particular memory network. If a part of a memory is activated, such as the sights, sounds, or tastes you experienced, it lights up the rest of the neurons in that network. Reconsolidation is what occurs during retrieval. It is our brain drawing information from various regions and putting these pieces together as a consolidated memory to bring into our consciousness.

The efficiency of each of these steps is dependent on many factors, including genes, health, stress levels, and belief systems, to name a few.

There are two kinds of memories you have the power to mold: implicit and explicit memory.

The conscious direction of mind into our past is known as explicit memory.

Implicit memory runs on autopilot without our human brain. When we enter into this world as a helpless infant, these memories were responsible for our transformation into adulthood.

In fact, researchers believe that in the first year and a half of our lives, we only encode memories implicitly.

According to Dr. Daniel Siegel, the three features of implicit memory are:

1. We don’t need to use focal, conscious attention for the creation of implicit memory.

2. When an implicit memory emerges from storage, we do not have the sensation that something is being recalled from the past. (We don’t think about the first time we learned how to walk every time we walk.)

3. Implicit memory does not require the participation of the hippocampus (the human brain’s role in memory).

Implicit memories are responsible for our beliefs, our subconscious mental models, our sense of right or wrong, and the triggers that cause fear, stress, and anxiety.

“Memories influence every action and pattern of action we undertake.”

The neural networks that form a memory live in many different areas of brain, but there are two areas most active in the creation and storage of memory: the amygdala and the hippocampus.

The amygdala is responsible for implicit memory, and the hippocampus is responsible for explicit memory.

Dr. Siegel calls the hippocampus “the master puzzle piece assembler.” It compiles the information it receives from multiple areas of brain to produce good and bad memories, as well as meanings and emotions for any event. It also helps consolidate the information stored in short-term memory, turning it into a long-term memory we can recall in the future. The conscious activation of our memory turns the implicit into explicit.

Various parts of the brain work together to form these implicit memories, such as the basal ganglia, which is “the habit center” of our brain, but the amygdala is primarily responsible for this task. The amygdala, or fear center of the brain, stores emotionally charged and painful memories to help you avoid future danger.

Every time we explicitly recall a memory, we are not remembering the event itself, but the last time we remembered that event. In other words, upon retrieval, a new memory is formed.

Since good and bad memories are formed by our conscious remembrance of them, not by the event itself, altering the conditions in our brain during recall can recreate the neuronal map of our memories and the stories they tell.

If we make ourself happy now and then travel back in time to a sad or painful memory, the joy we feel in the present will change the neurological formation of that sad event. By choosing our present state of being and then going into our past, modifying it within 6hours, we can begin to heal and erase these memories and change the effect the past has on us today.

Our memories might not be true. But don’t let this information lead you to question and dwell on past. That could drive anyone insane. Instead, use the malleability of memory to your advantage. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how “true” your past is. Memories function the way they do because all that matters is how your past helps drive you forward today.

Our past helped shape the fears that keep us imprisoned in our present, so altering, healing, and erasing our memories is often a necessary step to move from fear to Nirvana.