Last week, after I wrote about reminiscing, I sent the photo of me, my husband Chris, and our friend Dan on the boat in Turkey to both Chris and Dan. I feel I tripled my happiness because they also enjoyed reminiscing. Here’s what Dan wrote:
“Wow! It certainly was one of my best days too! Friends I’ve known and loved for years came halfway around the world to celebrate (and officiate!) our daughter’s wedding with us. That boat trip was amazing!”
I’m curious—did you try it? How did you feel? Do you think it’s a practice you could keep up? Something you might put on your calendar to do once a week until it becomes a habit?
Here’s another idea, one that’s for more visual people: curate the past. That’s just a fancy way of saying make a holiday jar or a small treasure chest or a scrapbook or photo album.
The idea is to make it manageable so that it brings to mind happy memories rather than making you feel you really should clear out the basement.
This can be tough, especially if you’re a saver (dare I say packrat?) A lanyard from an exciting conference can remind you of your professional successes. Every lanyard from every conference you’ve ever gone to is overkill.
When you go somewhere, collect a few small items during the trip, like a stone, a seashell, a postcard, and the hotel key. Put them in a small jar and place it somewhere you can see it.
You may have a wedding album, but any event can be worthy of small photo album. You can use a service like Shutterfly, or you can print them and create the album yourself.
If you like to draw, make a sketch book of a memorable time. Or, if you like to write, record vignettes and keep them in a binder or folder, somewhere you can pull them out and review them with ease.
Of course, if there’s something that lights you up, you can do more than simply save it in the basement or attic. Surround yourself with those activities artifacts. Put them out on display. Frame and decorate a wall with record albums from your favorite concerts, for example.
Here’s the secret sauce: Acknowledge any elements of your reminisce that were not fun. Were there challenging moments? How did they make you feel? Including what was not fun serves two purposes. It provides a backdrop to further appreciate the good times, and it provides valuable feedback about perhaps what not to do next time.
In Istanbul, after the boat ride, Chris and I took public transportation back to our hotel. Or we tried to. We got off at the wrong stop. And couldn’t find a taxi willing to drive into the bazaar, which was where we were staying. We had our phones, but spotty cell service. I get panicky when I’m lost. Next time I’m in a country where I don’t speak the language, I’ll bring a paper map.
But even with that hiccup, it was still the best day of my life.