False Memories

"Just because someone thinks they remember something in detail,

with confidence and with emotion, does not mean that it actually

happened. False memories have these characteristics too."

Elizabeth Loftus

Like a movie streaming across a screen, my memory danced with color and vibration. I was instantly propelled back into my past as though I were living it all over again. For whatever reason, I felt a gentle nudge encouraging me to step back and to view this scene without emotion or intimate connection. And so I did.

Recollections began to lose rigidity and questions surfaced in my mind. I was being prompted to view my vivid flashbacks with more objectivity.  The movie screen in my mind extended, displaying additional information to my selected memory. There was more to the story that shifted my repetitive and narrow perspective.

When we take the time to examine a memory with a neutral eye, we begin to see a bigger picture lending more information. Governed by our own emotional makeup, we have jaded or embellished the past to support our mind frame whether accurate or not. Healing begins as we adjust and reframe our stored thoughts with compassion and objectivity.