Here’s why you cannot trust yourself
Did you ever think why nostalgia is soo good? That 2D pixelated game where you can only move bidirectional is better than the 3D modern games containing literal replica of ancient Germany. Why that bitter-gourd tasted so unbearable when you ate it years back?
Remembering the good old days when I was a little kid, holding my mama’s hand going around seeing the beautiful Buddhist temples. That is until I see the pics and I’m either sleeping or playing with the stupid toy car.
This isn’t a big deal, All of us fill our memories with false events. It can be loosely called as confabulation.
Human memory is a marvelous but fallacious instrument — Primo Levi
This phenomena is people usually misremembering their own memories. Very less people in world have photographic/eidetic memory, for the rest of us we mostly forget what we experience/see/hear.
The funny thing happens when we try to remember those memories. The forgotten parts of memory are filled with made up events according to our beliefs.
For example here, I believe Buddhist Temples are exquisite and I filled my old memory of sleeping on trip with appreciating the beautiful house of worshiping.
The same happens when you have a nostalgia, Those good old memories are amplified way out of proportion and that’s why they feel so very good.
That 2D pixelated game is no longer the same in your memories , it has changed according to your beliefs and expectations. The 2 bucks chocolate you so liked as a kid might not give the pleasure you’re expecting if you eat it now.
Even for the bad things in life are usually overly amplified according to our beliefs which makes them unbearable in our memories. That boss of yours might not be that insufferable. That bitter-gourd(Karela) curry might taste better if you try it now compared to your bad memory of eating it years back.
The point of the article is we don’t need to be (extremely) judgmental on the basis of our memory of some distant half forgotten past. Being open to possibility of perception change is always a good thing.
Life is an endless journey between perception and reality
Cheers :)
