You and I both know the potentially debilitating effect recalling a memory from our pasts can have.

Some days, the moment a challenging memory of the past is triggered, it can set us on a course of self-destruction and sadness that lasts hours - or days. 

But what if I told you that, just like a Microsoft Word document, you could edit and update each time you accessed a memory? Then, only access the most recently updated version moving forward?

When you understand how memory formation works and the process known as reconsolidation, you’ll better understand how and why therapeutic memory reconsolidation is critical in helping you release negative emotions rooted in stored memories so that you can move forward with peace, clarity, and confidence!

It was long believed that the process of creating and storing a memory that eventually made its way into long-term memory storage was a permanent hardwired process. 

If this were true, it’d mean that no matter how hard you tried to heal, learn from, and move on from difficult experiences, you’d continue to carry the strong negative thoughts and feelings associated with them each time you accessed the memory.

Fortunately, we now know memory doesn’t work that way and that long-term memories, too, are malleable.

This is noteworthy because research shows that your ability to drain the emotion and augment your experience from past memories is not only possible but that it can also have a significantly positive impact on your present-day - and future - experiences.

In today’s edition of the Unstuck Yourself Newsletter, I’ll help you understand how memory storage and long-term formation processes work so that you can then begin to understand the complex process of memory reconsolidation. It’s this principle that brings hope and light to the possibility of letting go of the strong emotional responses memories may currently have on your life.

How Long-Term Memories Are Formed (Consolidated)

Before I discuss the principle of memory reconsolidation, you must have a working understanding of how long-term memory formation works and a brief understanding of the role of a few key areas of the brain. 

Your brain is hardwired to stay away from danger and to seek reward. It learns best when experiencing either a strong negative response, such as fear, or something very pleasurable, such as food or sex. 

To best understand how new memories are formed, stored, and retrieved, here’s a simplified step-by-step overview.

1. When you experience events in your life, the sensory input from your surroundings, such as sights, sounds, and emotions, are processed by your mind. Think of these as the raw materials of memory formation. This process is known as encoding.
   

2. Once information is in short-term memory, its next destination greatly depends on the amount of attention given (dopamine increases the focus of attention on something) and the emotional energy present. The more attention and emotional energy, the more likely the memory will move through the process of being stored in long-term memory.
   

3. If a memory is destined for long-term storage, it undergoes consolidation in the hippocampus. Consolidation can be thought of as combining the raw materials of the experience cohesively, which enables transportation throughout different regions of the brain.
   

4. Your hippocampus recognizes experiences that are worth remembering based on their novelty and the amount of emotional energy they carry. The more emotionally-charged an experience, the more likely it will be laid down in long-term memory.
   

5. After consolidation, the hippocampus begins to send the memory back to the sensory area of the brain where it was originally generated, i.e., the visual portion of the memory is sent back to the visual cortex. In this way, memories are split up and stored on a sensory basis. This process takes place over a long period and primarily while you sleep.
   

6. When needed, memories are retrieved from long-term storage and brought back into conscious awareness. The hippocampus and cortex work together during retrieval, with the hippocampus helping to retrieve contextual information and the cortex providing the specific details of the memory.

7. When memories are retrieved, they may undergo reconsolidation, modified or updated based on new experiences or information. This process involves the hippocampus and cortex, ensuring that memories remain relevant and accurate over time.

Okay - that was a little heavy on neuroscience.

Allow me to help you better remember how the process of memory formation works with a simple and relatable analogy…

Think of Memory Like A Microsoft Word Document

Imagine your memory as a Microsoft Word document that you're constantly updating…

When you first start typing, it's like encoding a new memory. You're adding information to your document, much like how sensory experiences are encoded into short-term memory.

As you continue typing and editing your document, you periodically save your progress. This is similar to the consolidation process in memory, where the information is stabilized and strengthened in long-term memory storage, much like saving your document to your computer's hard drive.

However, sometimes you need to revisit your document to make changes or updates. Similarly, when you recall a memory, it becomes temporarily activated, and this can trigger the process of reconsolidation. Just like editing your Word document, reconsolidation allows you to update or modify the contents of your memory based on new experiences or information.

Once you've made your edits to the Word document, you save it again to ensure that the changes are preserved. Similarly, after undergoing reconsolidation, the updated memory is saved back into long-term storage, ensuring that the modified information remains accessible for future retrieval.

In this analogy, just as you manage and update your Word document to reflect the most current information, memory reconsolidation allows your brain to continuously refine and update stored memories based on new learning and experiences.

This is advantageous because it’s this process that allows you to reduce the emotional energy of the memory, which significantly reduces the impact this moment of the past has on your present day.

What is Memory Reconsolidation?

Memory reconsolidation is the process of reframing the learning and emotions associated with certain memories, to develop new emotional associations with established memories.

It’s a fancy way of saying that each time you retrieve a memory, the memory changes based on what is happening at the time you retrieve the memory, rather than at the time the event took place. 

This process is specifically for your unconscious mind. 

Consciously, you will know that the new take on memory is not how the remembered event actually happened, but unconsciously, emotional flexibility is being added to the brain.

Another way to think about the change process is to think of the emotional intensity of a memory as a light bulb shining brightly. 

Through Mindset and Performance Coaching, we’re able to greatly dim (or even extinguish) the light (intensity) of the bulb (memory) so that it has minimal or no further impact on your present-day reality. 

Each time you change the memory, you make it harder to access the original emotional state of the memory. In short, the details evolve and the emotional charge fades, therefore, lessening the impact and symptoms of said memory on your present life. 

The more repetition you add to this updated memory, the harder it becomes to access the original emotional state of that memory. 

Although you can take the time to go through this process on your own - to some extent - this transformative process is accelerated and improved greatly when working with a Mindset and Performance Coach with a background in hypnosis and change work. 

Traumatic Memory Access and Storage

As I shared earlier, your brain is trying to keep you away from danger. When you have a traumatic, dangerous experience, your brain responds by replaying the incident over and over, including the same thoughts and emotions.

This heightened attention and intensity of emotion rapidly builds and reinforces strong neural pathways to create an automated response to a threatening incident that becomes quickly hardwired into your brain. 

What’s unique about a traumatic experience is not only does the memory of the event move through the process of long-term memory formation, but the heightened emotional charge also allows the memory to remain in your hippocampus (which is usually a short-term storage depot for memories before they move to long-term memory formation), making it easy to access and recall.

That ease of access means that you’re more likely to think and feel the same thoughts and emotions from this moment, which only further strengthens the protective neural pathways that formed originally as a form of self-protection. 

It’s this relative ease of access that helps your brain prepare to recognize and respond to similar situations (or elements of situations) both consciously and unconsciously. 

Memory Reconsolidation in Action

The more often a memory is retrieved (or unintentionally and unknowingly triggered) without being changed (reconsolidated), the stronger the connection between the brain cells becomes and the more enduring that memory will be.

Recent research has shown that how traumatic memories are stored in the brain can be changed through new emotional experiences that contrast previous emotional learning. 

In essence, memory reconsolidation can change how traumatic memories are stored: from reactive short-term memory to non-reactive long-term memory.

While you would still remember the event during which your emotional response was learned, you would no longer have the same reaction to the experience as before. 

Instead, you would feel peaceful and calm, no longer bogged down by the intense grip of an experience. 

This phenomenon is just one of the major benefits of working directly with a Mindset and Performance Coach. There’s significant power in your past, but your past does not have to have power over your present - or future. 

One aspect of the work I do to help aspiring and current high-performers like yourself on their quest to get unstuck and unlock their full potential is to revisit key memories. There are specific memories that shape the collection of beliefs, stories, and emotions currently shaping your identity. 

Through guided regression and supportive coaching, we’re able to capitalize on the principle of memory reconsolidation to not only lessen the emotional intensity of the memory but also reframe the experience in a way that positively serves you in the present and future.

If you’re interested in working closely with me to get unstuck and unlock your full potential, schedule a free 30-minute Mindset Coaching Discovery Call with me now. 

Your Next Step

I recommend you go back and read this again - three more times, in fact.

It’s quite dense.

But when you recognize the opportunity and ability to change the emotionality of memories, you’ll begin to understand how easy it can become to make the mindset shifts and upgrades you desire. 

Interested in learning more about how I help high-performers just like you unstuck themselves and unlock their full potential?

Apply to work with me and schedule a coaching discovery call here. 

You can’t change unless you change.

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