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Close up of hands on top of one another. We see a father's palm, a mother's on top of it, then the palm of a young child, and a baby's palm on top.

Why Tiny Moments Become Life’s Biggest Memories

We don’t remember our lives. We remember the moments that captured our attention and carried emotional meaning. Emotion acts like the highlighter pen of life.

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Sunset with hands holding a clock that is showing multiple versions of itself across the sky, as if going back in time. There's also a series of musical notes stretching back in time.

The Closest Thing to Time Travel

When you hear a song associated with a specific period of your life, your brain can partially recreate the emotional state that accompanied it as well as where you were, what you were doing, and who you were with.

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Silhouette of young woman on sky background with sun inside her head.

Name it to Savour It

While naming negative emotions weakens their intensity (affect labelling), studies show that naming positive emotions increased their intensity.

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Square block of nine squares (3 by 3), each of a different colour and containing a cartoon face depicting different expressions - mostly smiles. Top middle (yellow) shows boredom and top right (blue) shows irritation, but the rest are of varying types of smiles, with the eyes helping to distinguish between smiles.

Name It to Tame It

That process of identifying and naming a specific emotion appears to change how the brain responds to it. It’s known as ‘affect labelling’ and it reduces activity in the brain’s threat detection system.

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