Rosy Retrospection

If someone told you that they were sending you on an amazing holiday, but you weren't going to be allowed to take any photographs and when you got home You would have no memory of it, would you go?

Probably not, I’d like to think that I would.

One October we went to Turkey for a couple of weeks, and it rained quite a lot, there was even water pouring into our villa at one point. On the same holiday my son managed to lock himself into his room and we had to wait ages for the property manager to come and set him free. There were times when I remember wishing that we'd just stayed at home and if I could have teleported myself back to Edinburgh then I would have!

Despite all of that, when I did get home, oh how I longed to go back! I spent hours poring over my photos, talking to the kids about how much fun we'd had, laughing about the indoor waterfall and at the memory of me being in bed on holiday with a puffer jacket on. I used one of my beach photos as my new cover photo on Facebook and just generally basked in that lovely post-holiday sparkly feeling!

I was experiencing 'rosy retrospection'.

It has been shown that we invest more in memories than we do in the present moment.

This explains why we can look back with "rose tinted spectacles" and although past times weren't always good, they become known as "The Good Old Days". This is one example of the way our memory is not as accurate or reliable as we would like to believe.

If you realised that the experience in the moment counts, would you enjoy things more? Would it stop you from focusing on "what's next?" and allow you to feel more content and at ease? Try it today!