The Gift and Pain of Implicit Memory

We all have memories of our past, whether happy or sad. We sometimes cannot control what we recall or feel because of implicit memory that connects our current situation to our past. We may suddenly remember the happy memories we spent with friends and loved ones and of those memories when we felt alone. Implicit memory is a gift because we can suddenly connect the experience that we do today like having a nice thanksgiving dinner with friends and automatically remember the dinners with our family. Yet it is a pain because we did not have happy memories only, we also have sad memories. And the emotional memories can allow us to trigger those moments also. Therefore, how can we control our minds to allow just recalling our happiest memories?

Here is a video that explains more about explicit and implicit memory, and explains how implicit memory helps with child adaption.