Making Memories

I’ve been following Laura Vanderkam’s Tranquility by Tuesday challenge. The past week has concentrated on rule #6: One big adventure, one little adventure. The idea is to counter the feeling of our days running together by adding a couple of novel experiences into our weeks. By adding “adventures,” instead of wondering where the time went, we have the hook of the novel experiences to remember our week.

Although I really like this idea and want to implement it, it does take some effort … and I can be lazy about that. Apparently, though, our brains need novelty to prompt our attention to store memories and related retrieval cues. “Event boundaries or changes in context” prompt us to pay attention to our circumstances, making us more likely to remember our day. Jon Mooallem extrapolating from German sociologist Georg Simmel, describes normal life “as an arrangement of circumstances that can be successfully ignored.” This is generally a good thing because it allows us to navigate our lives with more certainty and ease. Still, I also want to remember my days and not fall into that slippery time abyss that characterised so much of our later lockdowns.

Last week my big adventure was our night out with friends at the recently opened Stokehouse Pasta Bar, which was good. Afterwards, we walked out along the St Kilda Pier. My little adventure was routing one of my scheduled runs up through the St Kilda Botanic gardens. I wonder whether the practices that encourage us to pay attention also help with the problem of losing time; my guess is they probably would. I know for myself my photos are a major help for remembering, which is why I’ve always enjoyed capturing everyday moments because I don’t just want to remember the adventures. A blog and a private journal are also fascinating; a sentence can be enough to send me back into the thoughts and feelings of that particular moment.

Do you try to have regular adventures? Do you have practices to help you pay attention or help you make memories?