June 10, 2025- It always amazes me how bad memories can cloud the life of a person who actually has a lot of happy and good memories and positive things going on right now that will create more good memories. There is a belief this is because human beings needed in times past to stay away from dangers we no longer experience in our lives on a daily basis. A bad memory could help the person stay away from danger if in the past a particular food might have poisoned them. It also could help you stay away from dangerous persons, dangerous animals, or anything in the environment that could potentially be dangerous to a person. This does not mean that happy experiences are not things we love to think about and enjoy. No, that is not my point at all. The point is if a person honestly analyzes what they think about, they will admit they often think too much about times they have failed or did things they wish they had not done. While negative thinking may have been important in times past when matters of life and death could depend on using bad experiences from the past to effectively deal with the same potential problem in the present, such negativity is no longer necessary and something to try to overcome and not be allowed to darken your life in ways that you now cannot enjoy it. I can verify many persons I have worked with in my private practice as a psychologist or have known as I have walked the road of life have been consumed by fear, depression and high anxiety as they worry about the past and have problems dealing in the present because of it. To overcome the power of negative thinking resulting from overthinking on bad memories, it is important to put things in perspective by recognizing too much focusing on them can lead to high levels of anxiety and depression. You need to mindfully choose not to do this and focus on positive thinking and replacing negative thoughts with positive ones. As easy as this sounds, it is amazing how many people have problems replacing negative thoughts with positive ones. I actually believe it is the most important thing one can do when negativity is overwhelming them and they have problems seeing anything positive. It is important to make a mindful effort to think about positive experiences and keep them in your mind with the goal of having them happen again and not allowing negative thoughts to destroy the happiness that can come from remembering and ruminating on them. The saber toothed tiger is not going to eat you! So quit worrying about it and any other unreasonable things. A positive life with past and ongoing memory making is yours for the taking!