We Forget as we Move Through Life
We forget as we move through life. Walking through doors causes us to forget, according to the findings of a recent study published by Scientific American. The study suggests that when we walk through a doorway we forget details about things we carried with us from the prior room. The study had participants focus on certain details and then move through a doorway. They recalled less about those details each time they went through another doorway.
When study participants were exposed to information and moved inside a room without going through a doorway their recall was better than when they traveled the same distance and passed through a doorway. Therefore researchers were able to establish that we forget as we move through doors. I believe this finding also relates in a larger sense to our lives, we forget as we move through life.
On a Personal Level
Has there been a time when you moved from one room into another and then thought, “Now, what did I come in here to do?” I think all of us have had that feeling. According to this study our minds are wired in a way that promotes forgetting as we move through a door.
While there is controversy over how many thoughts we have on average each day, (I located anywhere from 15 to 70 thousand referenced) I believe we can agree that we all have thousands of thoughts per day. How much of those thoughts are retained? We forget as we move through life.
As I sit at the computer now and write I am aware of: the ambient sounds outside, the birds singing, the occasional cars that pass on the street, the temperature of the room, the lighting, the sound of my fingers on the keyboard, my feet as they touch the floor, a moving conversation I had yesterday, my schedule for today, the clock and the time I have before moving to the next activity.
I only captured selected thoughts I had while typing for less than a minute. As my day progresses what will I remember as I move to another room? What thoughts are necessary to retain as I move forward?
One way to get information to stay with us is to create relevance. Creating a link between information and something significant in our lives causes the information to be retained longer. Another key aspect to retention is repetition. That is part of what causes those well-known Oprah “Ah ha moments” to stick with us. We connect on a level of relevance with that information and it is repeated to us which strengthens the impact.
Life’s Truths Lost Through Doors?
However, even those connected thoughts are sometimes lost as we move through one door or phase of life. As we pass from teens to twenties epiphanies from that phase of our lives disappear.
The truths we gained from the first day of kindergarten have paled by the time we reach high school culmination ceremonies. Insights we gained from our first day on the job are likely gone before we move to our next employment interview. What we knew to be relevant as a child often fades as we become first time parents.
Some of what we forget saves us pain and anguish as we move through the phases of life. Some of what we forget causes us pain because we lack those past solutions that can be applied to current situations.
How can we hold on to more valuable truth, more useful information? Since we will not be able to retain everything, how can we be selective about what we remember? We do have a choice.
Our Creator has the answers. He made us. He knows the inner workings of our minds. He knew well before the findings of this study were published, even before the study was conceived.
What do you spend your time thinking about? Do you rehearse the thoughts you want to remember? On what things do you meditate? What are you doing deliberately every day to live your best life?
Even though we forget as we move through life, we can start each day focused on His commandments He promises He will add to us. Indeed even as we lose some of ourselves we gain more of Him.
Love,
Deborah
“Lighting the path to loving your neighbor as yourself.”