A Better Way to Handle Negative Memories

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How often in your head do you replay traumatic times…humiliating
horrors…or painful pasts?
If you’re like me…and many others, it’s pretty often. Psychologists have
argued in favor of a variety of theories to best deal with past emotions. This
includes everything from getting lobotomies to physically remove parts of
the brain to remove bad memories, to utilizing the avoidant theory, which is
each time a negative memory occurs, simply stop thinking about it. Hard,
huh?
A new way to deal has been suggested by researchers at the Beckman
Institute at the University of Illinois, led by psychology professor Florin
Dolcos of the Cognitive Neuroscience Group. Their studies claim that once a
negative memory enters your mind, recall the event holistically, which
allows us to remember not only the bad, but the positives that occurred too.
For example, hurt after being called out at work for poor performance? Did
your coworkers comfort you or did you rehash to your friends and were you
then reminded of your accomplishments? Did you end up working harder
to prove them wrong and triumph? Were you able to at least go home and
enjoy a nice bath…or a really good meal…or dessert?
Recalling some positives surrounding our bad memories allows us to gain a
more well rounded perspective on the matter.
Making us able to handle a bad thought a little bit better. Think about it.
More on the study:
scan.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2014/03/05/scan.nsu039.abstract
“New study suggests a better way to deal with bad memories.” April 18th,

  1. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-04-bad-memories.html

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