We’ve all experienced them…embarrassing moments. The thing about embarrassing moments is that they seem to stick around taunting us as memories. Actually, the memory of the feeling of the moment can end up being more intense than the actual moment itself. If you’d like to be free of that feeling, there is a mind hack you can use to get yourself to erase the memory. It doesn’t require an app, or special gadget. This is all you and if you do it, it should work.
Experts call this hack, the “synaptic pruning” and it’s exactly what the name implies. Here’s how it works…imagine your brain as a garden. Instead of it growing flowers, it has synaptic connections between neurons that grow. As you go throughout your day learning and experiencing things, your brain builds more of these connections.
Now…there’s another “agent” in your brain called “Glial cells”, these are the things that can either speed up the signals, or erase the ones that are no longer needed. Think of them as the gardener of your brain. They work when you’re asleep so your brain can create space for new and stronger connections in the future.
The good news is, you actually control what continues to grow and what gets cut. You just may not be aware of how you’re doing it. Right now, the things you focus on most are the things that continue to grow and the things you pay no attention to get cut. If you want certain things to stick around and grow, focus on it. If you want to delete something that you don’t want to grow, direct your focus on a happy memory, or something intense like an upcoming project. This will naturally weed out the things you no longer want to care about.
READ MORE: Your Brain Has a “Delete” Button—and Using It Couldn’t Be Easier
