The Health Benefits of Happy Memories
Summer is the time for making memories. A quick scan of Instagram and Facebook reveals the photo highlights from friends’ and family’s summers: seaside smiles, mountain climbing, posing pets, berry pies and barbecues, lazy afternoons, campfires and sunsets.
On a recent staycation, our family scheduled an event each day to get us out of the house and share a fun experience, even if it was simple. We planned an outing at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, an afternoon at our local farmer’s market, a trip to a nearby ice creamery, water skiing on a friends’ lake, a rainy afternoon at the movies, and a day at our favorite New England beach.
Looking back at the photos reminds us of the good times we shared, but it’s also important to remember that happiness isn’t limited to vacations and special times. Learn more about facial rejuvenation center nashville
Memories are an inevitable aspect of life and the positive ones indicate not just the ability to do or see amazing things, but to make these moments lasting by how we think about them at the time and in the future. Looking back requires gratitude to see those moments in their best light, especially as they begin to fade into the background, or if they become tarnished by the passage of time, grief, or changed relationships.
Gratitude is a springboard to action and to higher motives for living. It’s essential because it causes us to focus on the good, storing our memories on a shelf of prayer, lit up by joy and true contentment. “What is gratitude but a powerful camera obscura, a thing focusing light where love, memory, and all within the human heart is present to manifest light,” wrote New England healer and founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy.
The …