Memory Mining

 

I created this technique a few years ago for boosting my mood when I needed to. Then it was all about trying to get out of anxiety and depression. I would get in these low spots in my life where it would seem like everything was going wrong.  I would have such bad anxiety that I wouldn't want to hardly leave the house, or my room, and for the most part even my bed. It wasn't just the anxiety though it was also deep depression.  I had been diagnosed with PTSD and Fibromyalgia. Besides that there were quite a few other things that also caused me many other health issues. 

One of the things that seemed to help, once I committed to the regular practice of it, was meditation. During one of these meditations I began to notice that as I was connecting to love, I began to see all these images of different moments in my life where I experienced deep love, such as holding my children on there first day, or my wedding day. As I was connecting to peace I would remember all these times where I felt peaceful, like a day at the beach, or hiking.

It was then that I realized I could use this idea to help my mood, but not only that,  it could help me to forgive those people who wronged me in my life. I gave it the name memory mining, because essentially it's going through your mind and on purposely picking through the memories that will help you to create the feeling you want. 

I could be anywhere at anytime and start having a panic attack. But if I started paying attention to my breath and thinking about the memories of holding my babies or giving  someone a big hug, my breath would slow down, and the tension would ease out of my body. 

But the truth it is, it would be great for lots of moments. Think about when you are scared to do something, you could think about all the times you were courageous. Or if you can't think of anything personally, think about that moment you felt admiration for someone else who was courageous, and know that you could be that too. 

If you keep finding yourself in a state if being angry with someone, and if you want to change that, in order to forgive them for your own peace of mind, mine your memory for all those times you laughed together. Think of all the loving moments you shared. Realize that hurt people hurt people. You may not have been the one to hurt them but someone did. 

Anyways, I bet there are tons of other ways this could be used too. At any rate, since I have been using this, I find I don't even need it that often anymore.  I rarely have an anxiety attack anymore, and if I do I recognize it in just the beginning stages and can talk myself out of it quite quickly. I also have a couple more tricks for anxiety.

One being counting your breath to ten and starting again until you are calm. I remind myself to relax my shoulders and soften my gaze (meaning to focus on everything at once, using a lot of your peripheral vision). Also listening to the sounds of everything. In other words, geting out of your head and into your body. 

Hope this helps. 

Anyways, Have a Blessed Day

Author

Delila Bishop