Top Quotes: “The Art of Making Memories: How to Create and Remember Happy Moments” — Meik Wiking

“People were remembering experiences that were novel, meaningful, emotional and engaged the senses.

For instance, 23 percent of the memories were novel or extraordinary experiences such as visiting a country for the first time; 37 percent were meaningful experiences such as weddings and births; and 62 percent involved several of our senses: for example, one woman saw, smelled and tasted the poblano peppers which her mother used to roast on the stove when she was a child.”

“Invest attention. Treat your happy moments like you would your date. Pay attention to them!”

“Use all your senses to your advantage. Be aware of what you see, smell, hear and feel when you are happy.”

“Warhol had a passion for perfume. In his memoir, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again) (1975), he describes how he switched perfumes all the time to preserve memories attached to each scent.

If I’ve been wearing one perfume for three months, I force myself to give it up, even if I still feel like wearing it, so whenever I smell it again it will always remind me of those three months. I never go back to wearing it again; it becomes part of my permanent smell collection.”

“These surveys were conducted several times and, over the course of their study, Lofts and her colleagues had planted the false memory that some of the participants loved to eat asparagus when they were children. Other participants were not manipulated into thinking this way; these formed the control group.

Relative to the control group, data taken from the participants who now believed they loved asparagus as kids demonstrated that these new (and false) memories had consequences, among them an increased general liking of asparagus, greater desire to eat asparagus in a restaurant and a willingness to pay more for asparagus in the grocery shop.”

“This summer, my girlfriend and I created a “memory dish” after spending a wonderful day on the island of Bornholm. a day I wanted to remember.”

“We discussed how difficult it can be to remember names and how visualization can help.

Their surname is Ruge — which in Danish means “to hatch.” In addition, I have two friends with the same first names as the ambassador and his wife-aNikolaj and Astrid — so it was an easy picture for me to create: my friends Nikolaj and Astrid sitting on top of some eggs. Because of that image, I still remember the name of the ambassador and his wife today.”

“All our senses can take us back to the past — to a time and a place where we were happy and they can work as triggers to do just that. So remember to include impressions from all your senses if you are keeping a diary.”

““Entering or exiting through a doorway serves as an “event boundary” in the mind, which separates episodes of activity and files them away,” explained Gabriel Rad-vansky, one of the researchers behind the study, to Live Science.

In other words, the idea is that the act of walking through the doorway makes the brain believe that a new scene has begun and that there is no need for memories from the old scene.”

“Ash happiness researcher, I have observed that happiness is often found when three views align: who we feel we are, who we want to be and how others see us. When our loved ones see us and love us for who we really are, and when we manage to become who we know we can be, that is where we find happiness.”

“We first experience the world through our senses. When you meet someone new, you may register the color of their eyes, the sound of their voice, the scent of their perfume and the firmness of their handshake. This is the first part of the encoding phase of a potential memory.”

“Start planning which milestones you would like to celebrate. They may be big or small, for example walking ten thousand steps each day for a month or finishing renovating the kitchen or finding a new job. Make sure you also note down how you’re going to celebrate them. Will you go out for a nice dinner or allow yourself to stay at home the entire weekend watching your favorite films?

Last year, I bought two bottles of bubbly for each employee at the Happiness Research Institute and asked them to write down which milestones they would have to pass in order to open them. So far, we have toasted weddings, finished reports and surpassing our archenemy think tank in terms of followers on social media.”

“The interview started out fine, but as we were drawing to an end, Phil, one of the hosts of the show, asked, “So you have written The Little Book of Hygge, and now The Little Book of Lykke — what are you going to do next?” I thought the way he pronounced the Danish words hygge and lykke was very good and I wanted to compliment him. I also knew that a lot of people in the UK had been watching Danish dramas such as Borgen, The Bridge and The Killing and hearing them in the original language, so I thought that could explain why Phil’s Danish was so good. “Well done on your pronunciation of Danish,” I said. “You must have been watching a lot of Danish Borgen.” He heard a completely different word and started to laugh and blush, along with the other hosts. I had no idea why they were laughing. “What did he say?” asked Holly, the other host.

“I’m afraid to ask,” said Phil. End of interview.

Later that day, when I read an article with the title “Host Mishears Danish Guest” I was reminded that, in the UK, people pronounce it Bor-gen, with two syllables, but in Danish it is pronounced differently and Phil had heard, “You must have been watching a lot of Danish porn.” When I realized what the hosts thought I had said, I wanted to find a very small hole to hide in. I often think about it. Every time I have to do a live interview, I think to myself, Well, it can’t be any worse than me talking about porn. We all have these palms-to-face experiences, ones we still haven’t got over even years later. They pop up in our memory when we least expect them and when we least want them to.”

“What is special about Osterskov Efterskole is that they use LARP to teach the students. LARP is short for Live Action Roleplaying and could be considered a mix between Dungeons and Dragons and a civil war reenactment.

Each week there is a theme and the students are assigned a role and a mission. They may be NGOs preparing for a climate conference, trying to influence the lawmakers of the world. They may find themselves on Wall Street as bankers, as senators in ancient Rome, or Foreign Ministers in Brussels negotiating the future of Europe.

In the Roman Republic week, the students play members of different noble families in ancient Rome. Their aim is to rise in power and make their mark on history. In maths, students use trigonometry to solve the problem of water supply and to connect Rome with elevated reservoirs via aqueducts.

In physics, the students learn about metals — their qualities, where they are found and why some are better suited to equip a Roman legion with swords and shields. In German, the students need to buy slaves from a German-speaking slave trader to harvest their fields; this creates an incentive to learn the vocabulary to buy efficient workers. Later that week, their German teacher plays a Gothic warlord presenting territorial claims on behalf of his tribe and the students have to negotiate the terms and conditions of the peace in German.

Studies led by Lisa Gjedde, professor at the Faculty of Learning and Philosophy at the University of Aalborg Denmark, show that using LARP improves motivation and long-term memory. Grades either remain the same or are improved by the method.”

“Perhaps you could also consider how you can take some of your embarrassing moments and turn them into entertaining anecdotes it could be a way of stripping them of their power.”

“The children getting a chocolate bar. then a piece of gum were less happy than the kids who received just the chocolate bar. And two chocolate bars did not bring more happiness than one chocolate bar.”

“Sometimes, to reach the peak, we need to struggle and when it comes to memorable experiences, that might not be a bad thing.”

“Since remembered utility is an important influence on our future choices, if you want your kids to participate in something again, be sure to end on a high note.”

“One study by Dan MAdams, professor of psychology at Northwestern University in Illinois, shows that an ability to construct stories of personal redemption is associated with higher levels of mental health and well-being. A redemption story is a situation that starts bad and ends better, for example, cold porridge: bad; laughing with the family: better.”

“You may be able to use your great spatial memory to your advantage to hold on to happy memories. The idea is simple: rename places. If a certain place was the scene of a happy memory, start referring to that place by the happy memory.

Every summer, I go to the island of Bornholm, a beautiful rock island in the Baltic Sea. I have a tiny cabin there and the areas around the cabin have been the scene of many fond memories. Many of them have to do with foraging. There’s the Wild Cherry Forest, Juniper Lane, Elderflower Gorge, Raspberry Fortress, Spearfishing Bay and Skinny-dip Cove.”