The holidays can be painful times for people due to unpleasant memories from past holidays. I believe that painful memories weaken with time. I also know that we can speed up this process. We can make new enjoyable memories. The new happy memories replace the older memories that can cause painful feelings. As time passes, we think more and more about recent good memories and less and less about old sad memories.
Several ways we can develop pleasurable new memories are by helping others. For example, we can happily give up a parking place for a stranger in a crowded parking area; pick up a piece of litter, so that a worker does not have to bend over to do so; leave bags of empty returnable bottles in bottle return areas at stores to surprise lucky patrons; drop change in a parking lot for children to find; sneak a dollar bill in the open hoodie of someone standing in front of us in line at a checkout; and visit or call a nursing home and ask to speak to someone who never has visitors. The list is endless.
Now is the time for individuals who experience difficulty during holidays to begin to develop new happy memories that help to weaken old sad memories because the holidays will be here in a few weeks. Family members can participate by helping family members develop happy memories.
Kevin Synnott, Hampton
