The Practice
Spring is in the air (last week’s April nor’easter notwithstanding). Birds are chirping, leaves are budding, and flowers are blooming. You may be tempted to capture this colorful time of year by snapping a photo with your phone. However, research suggests that by doing so you are offloading your capacity for memory to your device, and will therefore remember less about the experience. Not to mention it is yet another situation in which a screen becomes a filter for your attention.
What if you took a mental snapshot instead? It sounds silly, but by pausing, making a rectangular lens out of your hands, and trying to attune to the specific sights, sounds, scents, feels, tastes, and vibes of that particular moment, you will be more present to what is happening and will be more likely to remember it. If you make it a daily practice—one mental snapshot that you will report on at a classroom gathering or family mealtime—it can become a challenge, a conversation topic, and an appreciation practice all at once. What did you take a snapshot of today?
The Language
There are so many moments during the day when we might notice something that we want to remember. Often we are conditioned to pull out our devices and take a picture. Or we are so busy racing around that we forget to pause and take in the details that will solidify the experience in our memories. Studies have even shown that people remember an experience better when they don’t use their phones to record it.
One way to pause and appreciate such moments is called taking a mental snapshot. All you have to do is take a pretend photo, in your mind, honing in on what you notice, like the colors or certain sounds or smells that will help your brain record this in its long-term memory banks.
You can even use your hands as the lens of the camera so you can frame and “snap” a mental picture. Let’s see if we can take one mental snapshot each day this week and then describe it as best we can at ____ (morning meeting/dinner/bedtime). Include as many details as you can in your description so we can all get a feel for the image you are describing. And don’t forget to share why you wanted to capture that moment.
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