How to forget something. How to erase memories or forget unnecessary information

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Memory is one of the most important, influencing his entire life. And many people take the problem of developing their memory skills very seriously. Fortunately, there are a huge number of opportunities today: various trainings, courses, seminars and other training programs. If a person has a need to improve his memory, he can easily find suitable materials. However, much less attention is paid to the problem of forgetting, although its importance is no less. After all, many of us often have a desire to get rid of some memories, feelings from the past, and simply free our memory from unnecessary information. This is exactly what we decided to talk about.

Among the many methods designed to improve memory, there are special methods designed for intentional forgetting. Their totality is called flying technology. The term itself is rooted in Greek mythology, in which the well-known river Lethe was often mentioned (remember the common expression “sink into oblivion”). Lethe is the river of oblivion, which was located in the underground domain of Hades. Dead souls who entered his kingdom, having drunk water from Lethe, forever forgot that they had ever lived.

So what are the benefits of flying technology and what exactly is it used for? To begin with, it is worth saying that the ability of human memory to forget is its integral component, because thanks to it, mnemonic processes are complete. And many Russian and foreign psychologists have talked and are talking about this. It is the ability to forget that helps a person erase from memory something that happened in the past, but has a destructive effect on the psyche and personality in the present, as well as any information that is irrelevant at the moment. These are the two main reasons why it is recommended to master forgetting techniques.

There are two main flight techniques: suppression and removal. Let's consider each of them separately.

Suppression

This method is considered specifically as a psychotherapeutic one, i.e. thanks to him, it becomes possible to forget what has a traumatic effect on the psyche. Often some memories of negative events bother people and come to mind more and more often because of their vivid emotional coloring. A person begins to react sharply to this, to be afraid of these memories, and they become stronger. To eliminate these and other various obsessive thoughts, two exercises are usually used.

"Burning Letter"

Write down on a piece of paper all the memories that make you feel negative emotions. Describe them in full detail. Then take this sheet, crumple it and place it in a pre-prepared fireproof container. Set fire to the crumpled sheet. Watch the flame. And while the leaf burns, imagine how all the memories that bother you burn with it, and then turn into ashes. As soon as the paper completely burns out, scatter the ashes to the wind, throwing them, for example, out the window.

The essence of this exercise is that it not only helps you get rid of unnecessary memories, but also becomes their master. It is by having the opportunity to manage his memories that a person can get rid of them. This may even be unpleasant to some extent, but the result is worth it, because a person no longer needs to defend himself from annoying thoughts or suppress them, because he can simply describe them and burn them. And fire, as we know, has always been the best psychotherapist for people: looking at it, people were cleansed of what was psychologically pressing on them, “threw a heavy burden off their shoulders.” If a person has a vivid imagination, he is able to almost literally imagine how his troubles and misfortunes burn together with the paper, freeing his memory from a heavy burden.

"TV"

Sit in a comfortable chair or sofa and take a comfortable body position. Try to project your negative experiences in detail onto a large television screen created in your imagination. After that, pick up the same imaginary remote control and turn off the sound of your “movie”. Watch it as a silent movie. Then gradually make the image blurry and dull. Imagine that it becomes less and less bright and disappears completely.

The most important thing in this exercise is not to rush. There is no need to try to complete the entire exercise in a couple of minutes. On the contrary, you need the process to be as detailed as possible. For example, you can imagine how, after the picture disappears, you turn off the TV, unplug the power cord, pick up the TV, bring it to the window and throw it away.

You can also get creative with the film itself: change the plot from drama to comedy. Model the continuation of the situation in a comical version, put a funny melody or a stupid song on the image, imagine that the role is played not by you, but by one of the comedians. Become the director of your memories - this way you can manage and control them. If you don't need them, throw them out of your “video library”.

Even if “Burning Letter” and “TV” do not completely rid you of memories, you will in any case cease to be afraid of them. And if you are not afraid of them, then they will probably become indifferent to you. And what is indifferent to a person rarely disturbs his memory.

Removal

This is the second flying method. It is intended to a greater extent to remove from memory information that has lost its relevance and represents only mental and emotional garbage. Several exercises can be distinguished in the removal technique.

"Flight technical rag"

For example, your memory contains unnecessary images (words, people, pictures, data), which, although they do not have a negative effect, distract your attention and interfere with concentration, free flow of thoughts, etc. Imagine all this information figuratively reflected on a large chalk board. Then imagine taking a wet rag and erasing all those blocks of this information that you don’t need. In empty spaces, new images may form, related to the previous ones or associated with those nearby. Take the rag again and continue washing. Do this until nothing appears in the empty space. This technique is suitable if there is little information, because... you can divide the board into several sectors and clear each of them in turn.

"Images on Film"

There are cases when the amount of information is large and a simple “flying rag” may not work. Then you can transform this technique a little. Imagine that all the recreated images are displayed on the same board, but only it is covered with an opaque film. Fill this entire film with unnecessary data, and then simply pull it off the board, immediately freeing up a large space on a new film stretched over the same board. The presented technique was used at one time by the outstanding Soviet and Russian journalist, professional mnemonist and owner of a phenomenal memory, Solomon Veniaminovich Shereshevsky.

Recording

This is another technique that S.V. used. Shereshevsky. He said that he always found it funny that people write down everything they want to remember, because if a person writes it down, why should he remember it? He decided that if he wrote something down, then he did not need to remember it. This became one of the laws of forgetting developed by Shereshevsky, which he began to apply whenever he needed to forget something not particularly important: telephone numbers, people's names, etc. You can use this technique too. Just note that the more a person writes down, the less he uses his memory, and the less he uses his memory, the less trained it is and the less he can remember. Therefore, the less he writes down, the more he will train his memory, and the more he will remember. And it turns out that the information being recorded is information that should not be imprinted in memory, which means it can be safely forgotten. Very good welcome, although to many it seems somewhat paradoxical.

In conclusion, I would like to add that the more you practice forgetting unnecessary information, the faster you will master this skill. After some time, the need to use any techniques will disappear by itself, because... You can forget any information and erase memories only with the help of one volitional effort, by giving your brain the appropriate command.

Don't forget to leave a comment. We will also be interested to know which of the forgetting techniques discussed seems most effective to you.

For many people, the problem of developing memory and skills memorization and assimilation of texts is more relevant than the ability to forget the past and get rid of unnecessary information.

Today you can find a large number of advertisements in newspapers, on TV and on the Internet, the headlines and announcements of which are full of promises to improve and restore memory. Anyone today can independently and easily find a mass useful information about how to develop memory. But for the effective functioning of our memory, it is necessary not only the ability to reliably remember, store and, if necessary, reproduce the necessary information. It is also important to be able to forget it.

In mnemonics (methods and methods that facilitate memorization) there are special techniques designed for deliberate forgetting. And indeed, why, if there is involuntary and voluntary memorization, can forgetting only be involuntary?

So, the set of methods and techniques for learning to forget is called flying technology. The origin of this word goes back to Greek mythology. Lethe is a river of oblivion located in the underground kingdom of Hades. The souls who arrived in the kingdom of the dead, having tasted the water from this river, received oblivion and no longer remembered their earthly existence. This is where the expression came from - to sink into oblivion, meaning disappearance and oblivion without a trace.

What is the use of flying technology and its laws of forgetting? In what cases are they necessary?

First of all, answering these questions, it should be said that forgetting is not a definitely negative quality of human memory, since the functioning of mnemonic processes without forgetting processes will be inferior. It would be appropriate to recall the words of the outstanding Soviet psychologist Alexander Romanovich Luria - “ Many people are working on how to find ways to remember better? But no one even thinks about the question: how best to forget?»

In this article, we will look at the most effective ways that help a person forget the past, which has a traumatic effect on his psyche, and learn how to forget information that has lost its relevance.

Forgetting techniques can be used in at least two cases:

• In order to suppress unpleasant memories, especially those that have become obsessively repetitive.
• In order to erase from memory unnecessary information that simply clutters our brain.

Forgetting method #1 - Suppression

This flying technique has a psychotherapeutic orientation; with its help, you can forget memories that are traumatic to the psyche.

Often the memory of unpleasant events haunts people, and they begin to fear that these traumatic memories will begin to “pop up” again, and the more they fear this, the more fears become more intrusive. To relieve obsession (involuntarily obsessive thoughts), you can use an exercise called “burning letter":

• Memories that make you suffer and experience unpleasant sensations, describe them in detail and transfer them to a piece of paper. Then take this sheet, crumple it up and place it in some fireproof container, set it on fire. As you watch the paper burn, think about how your experiences burn, how they crumble and turn into ashes. All negative memories burned away! Throw the ashes out the window and scatter them to the wind!

The point of the “burning letter” exercise is that it helps not only to forget information, but to become the master of your memories. A person experiencing unpleasant feelings from past events can thus forget them. Of course this one forgetting process may be unpleasant, but often it gives the desired effect: a person does not turn on defense mechanisms, does not suppress memories, but, on the contrary, by describing these events, he gets rid of the memories associated with them.

Since ancient times, fire has played the role of the first psychotherapist for humans: looking at the flame, a person, in fact, underwent a psychotherapy session, cleansing himself of heavy thoughts and throwing off the weight of primitive stresses from his shoulders. And if a person has a good imagination, and he is able to vividly imagine that not just paper is burning in a fire, but also memories that traumatize his psyche, then even if he wanted to, he will not be able to reproduce them.

“TV” is another exercise often used by psychologists and psychotherapists in their practice to rid the patient of memories that weigh on him:

• Try to transfer your negative experiences as vividly as possible onto the big TV screen. Remember everything down to the smallest detail. Then take the remote control, and mentally turn off the sound, watch a “silent movie”. Then, in a similar way, deprive the visualization of clarity, contrast, and, finally, brightness. Eventually, the image fades and disappears completely. The main thing is not to rush! To make the process of forgetting more effective, you can mentally unplug the cord from the socket or throw the TV out the window. If the negative memories are not so tragic (let's say, just unpleasant), then with the help of this exercise you can translate them into the genre of comedy. Imagine these events recorded on video camera. Mentally start recording in reverse side, scroll it at high speed, use slow motion, put funny music on the picture, introduce a comedian into the “movie,” etc. If you learn to direct your memories, it will be easier for you to manage them. Moreover, where there is humor, there is no place for neurosis.

These exercises may not help you completely get rid of memories, but they will teach you not to be afraid of them. And this is very important, because by eliminating the fear of negative memories, we eliminate the cause of their involuntary appearance.

Forgetting method #2 - Deletion

Other forgetting technique is designed to remove unnecessary information from memory that has lost its relevance and clutters up the “archive” of memory. For example, you can free mnemonic matrices from already applied information material in order to fill them with new content.

The simplest forgetting method called " flight technical cloth».

• For example, we filled a memory matrix with a series of images created from words. Then, focusing our attention on the first cell of the matrix, we take a wet rag and erase the image (shaped group) located in it. The first cell remains, we continue to see it clearly, but now it is empty, the space is free and now new associative compositions can be placed on it. Next, we sequentially, cell by cell, go through the entire matrix and erase all remaining images using a similar method.

It should be noted that this method not entirely convenient if the mnemonic matrices are large. After all, it will take a lot of time and effort to consistently erase information from each individual cell. In such cases, it is appropriate to apply the laws of forgetting by Solomon Veniaminovich Shereshevsky, a Russian-Soviet journalist and professional mnemonist, who, speaking with intellectual numbers in front of a huge audience, was forced not only to memorize large sequences of numbers, words, incoherent syllables, etc., but also to erase everything this is from memory before the next performance.

• « Worried that the individual sessions do not get mixed up with each other, I mentally erase the board and, as it were, cover it with a film that is completely hopeless and impenetrable. When the session ends, I mentally remove it... I’m still talking to the audience, and at this time I kind of crush this film with my hands, hearing how it crunches.“- Shereshevsky shared his secrets. So he deleted information immediately from the entire field of the mnemonic matrix, and not from each individual cell. If such a method did not help to effectively forget information, Solomon Veniaminovich resorted to seemingly paradoxical methods of forgetting: “ In order to remember, people write down... It seemed funny to me, and I decided to do it my way: since they write down, therefore, they do not need to remember. This means that if I write it down, I will know that I don’t need to remember it... And I began to apply this law of forgetting in small things: in some errands, in surnames, in telephone numbers».

Trying to remember important information, most people tend to write it down. And the more often we write down what we want to remember, the less we use our memory. This is a direct path to memory atrophy, because without receiving enough load, it works less and less. As a result, people come to the sad conclusion that they have a bad memory, although they themselves are often to blame for this.

Try not to use notepads and notebooks, trust your memory, load it so that it can work fully ( exercises for memory development), and then she will stop letting you down. Only mark something on paper if you need to forget it!

The process of mastering the skills of forgetting (as well as memorizing) proceeds in a manner consistent with the laws of Hegelian dialectics. At a certain point, the experience of voluntary forgetting leads to a qualitative leap, allowing one to forget unnecessary information only through willpower without the use of special forgetting methods.

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Many have watched the movie “Always Say Yes”, almost everyone has heard the saying: “it is better to do and regret than not to do and regret,” but there are things in life that you need to categorically refuse, and we will talk about them in this article.

From time to time, all creative people are familiar with the feeling of inner devastation and mental burnout. These days the mood becomes bad, new ideas don’t come to mind, you don’t want to create and you can’t do it. This condition can occur after a long period of creative work or due to life shocks and stresses not directly related to creativity. Of course, you can give your body a rest, get some sleep, eat delicious food, go on vacation and, as a result, regain your strength. But how can you subsequently regain inspiration and find yourself back in the realm of ideas?

Negative emotions can arise in anyone. Everyone has problems, stressful situations, difficult days... All this pumps a ton of vital energy out of a person, makes him lethargic and tired, doomed and sick. Because of negativity, quarrels with loved ones, rude communication with others, curses between people and hatred of the whole world arise.

A crisis situation is characterized by internal or external events that make the usual pattern of life impossible. As a rule, such changes are accompanied negative feelings and thoughts, the emergence of a new life status. A crisis period makes it necessary to reconsider life, change priorities and values. This is a time of change.

How to attract love into your life, what should you do for this and is it necessary? Firstly, there are no universal recipes, tips or manuals to follow. Secondly, if in this case the word “work” is in principle appropriate, then the work should start with yourself, the changes should be primarily internal.

Everyone had problems associated with low mood, stress, and lashing out at loved ones over trifles. This must be dealt with, as it can cause discomfort to the human body. After all, physical and psychological health interconnected.

Toilet paper, pasta, canned food, soap are just some of the items that are quickly disappearing from supermarket shelves in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak. Let's call a spade a spade: these are not purchases out of necessity, but purchases out of panic. And although this is a completely understandable reaction of people to an uncertain situation, it does not affect the lives of others in the best way.

Many will agree that, from time to time, they are overcome by unwanted thoughts that cannot be gotten rid of. They can be so strong that even doing something interesting doesn’t help at all. This is accompanied by negative emotions, which add excruciating sensations. Sometimes it seems that it is impossible to overcome such thoughts, but if you look at the problem from different points of view, you can find the right solution.

There are moments and situations in life that are quite painful to remember. Sometimes years pass after events, and unpleasant thoughts do not leave a person alone. In this article you will learn how to forget painful memories of unpleasant situations, erase negativity, clear your memory of junk and unnecessary information.

We have prepared several useful tips and ways to help you leave the heavy burden of the past and take a new step into a clean future. You must realize that these changes are entirely up to you. . How to control your subconscious and make your memory work for you? Read below.

In order to erase unpleasant memories from your memory, first of all you need to answer the following questions:

• Why do I want to get rid of this thought?
• How do these memories interfere with my work and personal life?
• How bad do I feel when I remember this situation or incident?
• Do I feel guilty about what happened?

Awareness negative influence past experience in real life will help you reinforce your desire to achieve results - forget the negative.

1. You need a calm environment and full concentration.

A place where you will feel comfortable and calm is ideal. It is advisable that nothing distracts you at this moment. Try to focus on the process. Listen to your breathing. Make yourself comfortable. Relax.

2. Choose one specific negative memory that you would like to get rid of.

To forget an unpleasant experience, you first need to choose a specific memory and imagine it in all its colors.

What moment from the past causes you emotional pain? What negative memory has the greatest power to plunge you into apathy? What situation would you like to erase from your memory right now?

Remember what you would like to forget as accurately as possible. Focus on every small detail from the memory:

1. setting - where (in what place) everything happens;
2. approximate time of day;
3. participants in the event - people with whom the memory is associated;
4. the appearance of each participant, mood, weather;
5. dialogues, specific remarks of each, intonation and timbre of voice;
6. music, sounds from the environment;
7. Your feelings at the moment of what is happening;
8. feelings associated with this situation.

3. Next step: identify specific details to forget.

If an unpleasant experience is associated with a specific person, then it is hardly possible to forget it and erase the associated memories forever. However, you can erase details associated with this person, such as the smell of perfume, favorite place to spend time together, dish or dominant color of clothing, hobbies, etc.

It is necessary to write down such details on a piece of paper as extensively as possible.

4. Combine business with pleasure.

The next stage of working on a negative memory is to move the negative memory into the process of doing what you love. How does this work? While thinking about the details we identified in the previous paragraph, do something enjoyable.

The main goal of the method: force the mind to associate a memory with positive emotions and impressions.

How to do it: think about the discomfort of a past situation when you are swimming in the pool or listening to relaxing music, remember specific details when you experience pleasure Have a good day or relaxing in the country.

This trick compensates for the positivity that was missing in the past and helps restore balance.

5. Get rid of the manic goal of forgetting the event.

Surprisingly, we remember a painful memory precisely until the moment we let go of the thought: “Lord, help me forget everything.” Analyzing and detailing the past when we are doing a pleasant activity teaches us to perceive the same memory in a slightly different way. Don't drive away the past. Accept it. Analyze events and learn useful lessons for yourself.

6. Play with your imagination: imagine yourself destroying a memory.

There are several ways to play with your imagination and actually improve your well-being. These methods make the negative memory less important. The past ceases to influence your life and is perceived as a fact: what was has passed, flown by, burned out, evaporated.

Imagine a small picture

Take a screenshot of a negative memory in your mind. Alternately zoom in and out; add more brightness and then make the picture black and white. How do you feel when the brightness and size change? Now zoom in to the maximum and make it microscopic—too small to see.

Imagine a memory as a photograph

Do whatever you want with this photo: tear it into small pieces, crumple it and throw it in the trash bin, paint it with your favorite color, cut it with scissors, trample on it with your feet, erase the image with a special solution.

Set the picture on fire

Set the same imaginary photograph on fire with a lighter or throw it into a huge blazing fire. Memories are ashes. This event is long past. You do not depend on the past, you are not your past. Burn the negativity and warm yourself near the fire.

7. Be your own best friend.

Imagine yourself as a small child. Remember your childhood. Sit your little self opposite and say: “From now on, no one will hurt you. I will always be with you, I will protect you, you can rely on me.” You must understand that you are your own best friend and worst enemy. Change your attitude towards yourself, and then a lot of things in life will change for the better.

8. Stay busy: Dale Carnegie's golden rule.

The old truth about keeping a person busy can cure all diseases really helps.

Get rid of negativity and unpleasant memories not that difficult. When you do what you love, develop, read a lot, improve yourself, travel, attend interesting lectures, concerts, performances, play sports and meet close friends for a cup of coffee - there is simply no time for despondency.

Accustom yourself to an active lifestyle and a busy schedule. Then your thoughts will consist of the most important upcoming events, vivid impressions, plans for a future vacation, favorite books and songs.

Contact a professional: free yourself from negativity with the help of a specialist

Elena Kalachikova – professional trainer for memory development, head of the Shaleniy Ravlik school, teacher highest category with sixteen years of experience. Elena works with children from 5 years old, schoolchildren, students, adults, foreigners and people of retirement age. The trainer claims that he knows everything about memory and can easily teach not only to remember the necessary information, but also to forget negative experiences.

Elena guarantees forgetting negative information using the image of water, rubber band or fire, and also uses the method of repeatedly speaking out an unpleasant situation. We will be glad to see you at the Shaleniy Ravlik school. There is strength in everyone!

Life is full of events, and they are not always joyful: some of them you simply want to erase from your memory. However, often a person mentally plays out a negative situation in his head, returning to it again and again. However, you can get rid of this habit, and the tips described below will help with this.

How to forget an unpleasant event?

When thinking about how to forget something forever, you should resort to the following method. You will be required to relive the negative event without changing the plot. It is important that you feel emotionally what happened in the past. Remember all the little things you can.

Then imagine that all this happened not to you, but to someone else. What advice would you give to this person? Surely you would see the situation from a different angle. Put yourself in the shoes of the people who participated in it. What emotions are you feeling now? Most likely, you will not be so offended by everything that happened. After this, imagine how the picture fades and then disappears from your field of vision. You can even mentally drown her in sulfuric acid. She is no more, she has disappeared, she has died, which means you can let everything go. Understand that the past is dead and will never come back. Once you understand this, the pain will go away.

How can you forget something terrible?

You can erase a terrible event from your memory by switching your brain to something completely different. This could be work, a new hobby, dating. Also, you shouldn’t be alone, otherwise thoughts about what happened will simply haunt you. It’s better to spend some time with friends and relatives. Of course, from time to time, memories of a negative event will pop up in your memory, but every day it will hurt you less and less.

Some people have nightmares in which they return to that terrible reality and relive it. In this case, you need to think only about good things before going to bed. For example, thank Higher powers for what positive things happened over the past day. It could be:

• meeting with an old friend;
• your baby's smile or first words;
• a pleasant memory - a cute kitten or puppy, a beautiful butterfly.

You can also watch a comedy, a concert of your favorite artist, or listen to a new album before going to bed. It is important that you take your mind off what is weighing you down. As a result, you will go to bed in high spirits, which means you will only have pleasant dreams.

How to forget something bad in your life?

Bad events often happen in a person’s life, and most often he blames a relative, friend, or acquaintance for them. As a result, hatred appears, but it does not allow you to live in peace. In this case, it is very important to forgive the person who harmed you and let him go. Meditation will help you with this. Sit in a comfortable chair or lie down on your bed, close your eyes and take a few deep breaths. Once you are completely relaxed, you can begin to meditate. Imagine a place where you will be as comfortable as possible, and invite your offender there. Look into his eyes, look at his facial features, look at his clothes.

Now tell him everything you think about him. Surely you have accumulated a lot. You don't have to be shy in your expressions. Once you tell your abuser how you feel, you will feel better.

The next stage will be forgiveness. Take the person by the hands, look into his eyes and tell him that you forgive him. This must be done sincerely. Say the words “I forgive you” as many times as you want until you believe it. After this, you can let the offender go: look after him, wish him happiness and surround him with love.

You should feel lightness, it will be a sign that you have let go of the situation. If not, you need to do this exercise every evening. It may take you a month or a week, take your time, as it will become easier for you. As a result, the bad event will not dominate your mind; your brain will simply forget it.

How to forget a negative event forever?

The following exercise will help you forget something forever. For it you will need to find a sheet of paper, a saucer, matches and a pen. Sit down at the table and describe a negative event that happened to you. Remember all the details. Once you realize that you have nothing more to add, reread what you wrote and tear the paper, imagining how the negative situation is erased from your memory.

Then take a saucer, put scraps of paper in it and set them on fire. Look carefully at the flame, imagine how all your grievances and memories burn in it. Once the paper is completely burned, wash off the ash with water. That's it, this memory is no longer there, it has no power over your mind. Remember this and enjoy today without going back to the past.

You can read more tips on consigning memories to oblivion in our article -.