Marie Claire UK - 10.2019

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Rememberinghappy moments is key to our sense of self and overall well-being, so

how do we hold onto them in our tech-overloaded lives?Rosie Mullender reports

It’shappened to the best of us:
those moments when a laptop freezes
or a phone dies, and we feel a wave of
panic as our brain scrambles to
remember when we last backed up

• and which memories have been lost.
  From photos of life’s big moments to
  lists of the books we’ve read and films
  we’ve seen, we’re increasingly reliant
  on technology to keep our happiest
  memories safe. So-called ‘cognitive
  offloading’ – outsourcing our need to
  remember things to the internet – is
  changing the way our brains store
  information and eroding our ability
  to recall them for ourselves.
  But, being able to make and recall
  happy memories is crucial to our
  overall well-being, and is the subject

of a new book by Meik Wiking,

a researcher at the Happiness

Research Institute.The Art Of Making

Memoriesaims to boost the number

of experiences we can turn into happy

memories and, crucially, teach us

how to remember them.

‘Happy memories form the

cornerstone of our identity, and

can help with combating depression

and loneliness,’ says Wiking. ‘They

influence our happiness in the current

moment, as well as providing a

framework for our hopes and dreams

about the future.’ Nostalgia makes us

happy, increasing self-esteem and

strengthening social connectedness,

so the more vividly we remember the

good times, the happier we are overall.

When it comes to memory, says

Wiking, researchers have identified

a ‘reminiscence bump’ – the years

in early adulthood that we remember

most vividly. The decades in which

we tend to experience the most ‘firsts’

• first kiss, first job, first home – are the
  most memorable. By comparison,
  when we enter the daily grind in our
  thirties and forties, memories tend to
  blur together. ‘Finding ways we can
  continue to achieve new experiences
  is a good strategy for making
  memories that will last for decades,’
  says Wiking, but that doesn’t have to
  mean spending a fortune on exotic
  travel, or ditching your job. Stepping
  out of your comfort zone, even if that
  just means trying food you’ve never