The Ingredients of Happy Memories

How your past can have bright future with the right ingredients. Quotes and comments on Creating Happy Memories. Inspired by Meik Wiking from his book, The Art of Making Happy Memories.

Storytelling

We remember stories. When we experience something unexpected, we tend to remember it fondly. That time when the car broke down and a Rockstar stopped to help us. Experiences that become conversation starters tend to stick with us and keep us warm in cold, winter days of solitude.

Objects from the Past

What would you save if your house was burning down? Mixtapes, letters from your loved one, photographs of family, or a bottle of alcohol shared with dear friends? Of all the ingredients of happiness, this is the only one that is tactile and physical. The things we save often have happy memories associated with them.

These eight ingredients of happy memories are universal. No matter who you ask, they will have a happy memory that has at least one of these ingredients in it. Now that you know the ingredients, it's time to cook. How are you going to treasure your happy memories? How will you create situations that lead to happy memories in the future?

Tell us your life’s happy memories. What do you remember and why? We'd love to hear from you in the comments.

If you liked the ideas in this post and would like to learn more about making happy memories, we highly recommend reading the book, The Art of Making Memories - How to Create and Remember Happy Moments by Meik Wiking. We loved the book. We are sure you will enjoy it too.

Sometimes, reading books like these also brings back good memories meaning its worth investing in reading good books in life as well.

We often look back to our happy memories in the darkest hours of our lives. And when we relive them, no matter when, our memories have the power to make us smile and sometimes, also laugh. Happy memories are our crutch in old age, salve in pain, and companion during loneliness. We seldom know that we are making happy memories. Infact, most of us don’t even know we are making them when we are in the moment.

“The greatest joys of life are happy memories. Your job is to create as many of them as possible.”

― Brian Tracy

But if happy memories are so important, why don’t we make a sincere effort to create them? Meik Wiking, in his book The Art of Making Happy Memories, does just that. As the CEO of the Happiness Research Institute, he decided to understand happy memories better.

“Truly happy memories always live on, shining. Over time, one by one, they come back to life.”

― Banana Yoshimoto

In 2018, the Happiness Reserarch Institute conducted a global study on Happy Memories. The study was conducted across continents, countries, and cities. People of different ages and ethnicities took the survey. And after analyzing thousands of responses, patterns started to emerge. It turns out, there is a recipe for making happy memories. In this article, we talk through the ingredients. What makes happy memories, well, happy? Broadly speaking, there are 8 ingredients:

Novelty and extraordinary

We tend to remember things that are new, different from our daily experiences. Memories from our trip, our first kiss, the first job, that sky dive, etc. When we experience something for the first time, and when it is a pleasant experience, we tend to store those experiences as happy memories.

Happy memories involve us entirely. We don’t just remember that trip we took because it was an extra ordinary experience, but we also remember it because the trip had our full attention. We were cut off from work and the daily grind and dedicated all our attention in the moment. When we were on that first date, we were so involved with our partner that the rest of the world faded away.

“Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others.”

― Rosa Parks

Multisensory

Many experiences that are happy, use more than one of our senses. For instance, memories that center around food often involve our tastebuds, olfactory senses and our eyes (that ate the delicious food much before you placed it in your mouth).

Attention

“The richest person in the cemetery is the one who left the most happy memories.”

― Matshona Dhliwayo

Meaningful

“A good life is a collection of happy memories.”

― Denis Waitley

We remember memories that are meaningful to us. Those that are a milestone in our lives. Our marriage, birth of a child, graduation, etc. are all meaningful life events that we usually recall as a happy memory.

“He asked me once what I wanted when I died, what I wanted out of life, and I told him I just wanted more happy memories than sad ones.”

― R. YS Perez, I Hope You Fall in Love: Poetry Collection

Emotional

We remember memories that made us feel something. That unexpected proposal that made us feel special, the time when the usually unexpressive parent said they were proud or when we fall in love, deeply. Emotions are memory hooks. When we feel something deeply, it etches itself in our long-term memory.

“Your memory is the glue that binds your life together; everything you are today is because of your amazing memory. You are a data collecting being, and your memory is where your life is lived.”

― Kevin Horsley, Unlimited Memory

Peak and struggle

“A happy memory is perhaps on this earth truer than happiness itself.””

― Alfred de Musset

We also tend to remember our comebacks as a happy memory. The time we struggled and achieved something. When things were not going our way, but we endured. The overcoming of our struggles is often a happy memory we remember for a long time.

“Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.”

― Dr. Seuss

Storytelling

“The greatest legacy we can leave our children is happy memories.”

― Og Mandino

We remember stories. When our experience something unexpected, we tend to remember it fondly. That time when our car broke down and a Rockstar stopped to help us. Experiences that become a conversation starter tend to stick with us and keep us warn in cold, winder days of solitude.

“No one can ever take your memories from you - each day is a new beginning, make good memories every day.“

― Catherine Pulsifer

Outsourcing

“The most beautiful things are not associated with money; they are memories and moments. If you don't celebrate those, they can pass you by.”

― Alek Wek

What would you save if your house was burning down? Mixtapes, letters from your loved one, photographs of family, or a bottle of alcohol shared with dear friends? Of all the ingredients of happiness, this is the only one that is tactile and physical. The things we save often have happy memories associated with them.

“Find your purpose by excavating and tying together the common threads of your happy memories by focusing on the emotions you felt.”

― Mastin Kipp

These eight ingredients of happy memories are universal. No matter who you ask, they will have a happy memory that has at least one of these ingredients in it. Now that you know the ingredients, it's time to cook. How are you going to treasure your happy memories? How will you create situations that lead to happy memories in the future?

Tell us your life’s happy memories. What do you remember and why?

“Someone said that God gave us memories so that we might have roses in December.”

― J M Barrie

If you liked the ideas in this post and would like to learn more about making happy memories, we highly recommend reading the book, The Art of Making Memories - How to Create and Remember Happy Moments by Meik Wiking. We loved the book. We are you you will enjoy it too.