Nadja’s Reviews > Happy Moments: How to Create Experiences You'll Remember for a Lifetime > Status Update

"evidence suggests that our memories are linked to our language ability, that is, our memories start staying with us at the time we begin to be able to tell stories about our life - and, therefore, we can shape our memories by choosing which stories to tell and by choosing which activities are likely to yield fond childhood memories for our children.
(Cont.) " p 197

"Help your kids and loved ones hold on to happy memories by retelling happy anecdotes.

It's not just about repetition.If the fact is already in the front of your mind, there is no work being done to enable you to recall it. If the information is retrieved at intervals,then the brain has to reconstruct that memory,and this strengthens it,like a muscle. (Review&repeat after increasing intervals >> Spaced repetition)"

"If we don't do anything stupid, if things don't go wrong, we don't have any stories to tell." P 178

Make the journey part of the experience. In an era of impatience and instant gratification,one way to make things more memorable is to delay your arrival.If you have spent5hours hiking to the peak,it makes the experience greater than if you took the 15min cable car up.It may also make sense to take a train instead of a plane.U will get there slower,but may have a more enjoyable journey. Trains - the tantra of travel.

"The peak end rule is that our memory of past experience (whether pleasant or unpleasant) does not correspond to an average level of positive or negative feelings but to the most extreme point and the end of the episode" p158

"Duration plays a small role in retrospective evaluations of experiences; such evaluations are often dominated by the discomfort at the worst and at the final moments of episode (peak-end effect)."

"..our 'experiencing' selves and our 'remembering selves' perceive happiness differently.

Experiencing self, who lives in the present, or for about 3 seconds at a time. And the remembering self , who is relatively permanent and does their best to keep a track record of all their experiences. In other words, our remembering self is the one that tells the story of our life." P 156

"Sharing embarrassing stories came make them lose their power."

"I've found that my embarrassing moments lose some of their power if I take control of them and laugh at them."

"Once in a while, when planning your day off, make sure you put the options through the Ten Years' Time test. What will I remember in a decade?" P 144