Memories continually exaggerate the emotions one lives through. I have realised that I don’t replay the events from memory. I rebuild them, and that rebuilding process tends to exaggerate the emotional intensity. I remember myself being happier than I actually was. In the same way, I remember sad moments as far more painful than they actually were.
Elevate the happiness. Elevate the pain. That’s what memories do.
So I never relive the sad memories. Instead, I remind myself that it was a lot less painful than what I remember it being.
Somewhere along the road, I read - All our memories are made up fragments of reality Every time you recollect something, it's wee bit different from what actually transpired - swung and molded by your emotions at the current state. I guess this is where writing helps? Those recollections are atleast frozen and tied to that point in time for until this record ceases to exist.
Very well said. Wee bit different is an apt description. We tend to mould memories in ways that indulge us.