Neuroscience has discovered that when information enters the brain during conversation or situations, a signal that creates significant activity deep down in our brains is released. Our brain then prepares to build memories with this new incoming information.
These new thoughts move through our brains like a wind through a forest and activate four to seven memories, moving them into our consciousness and causing us to become aware of them.
Why is all this neuroscience significant? Because when we think, we also feel. Our thoughts contain information and also have an emotional component to them. If not dealt with appropriately, these thoughts will have "baggage" attached to them (which will become memories) that we react emotionally to. When someone says or does something, or we remember, see or dream something, it triggers our existing memories, which then cause an emotional response
This is why it's very good to sit down regularly with Jesus and examine our thoughts and why we may have reacted to a person, situation, memory, or comment. Many of our reactions have nothing to do with the situation before us but rather previous events.
Most of our memories are healthy and good, but where there is a negative, stressful or unhealthy memory, it's vital for our futures to reprocess that memory and apply what God says about it. Otherwise, some of our memories will keep us captive to our past, and in some cases, in real bondage, which is not what God wants for us.
Jesus came to heal, deliver and set us free in every area of our life, our memories included.
"For who the Son (Jesus) sets free is free indeed". (John 8:36)
Today take some time to write down one event or conversation in the last week or from your past that you know still causes you pain, regret, or anxiety, and assess what your thoughts and emotional reactions are/were. Then examine what that event or thought triggered in your memory.
Seek God honestly as to whether you are carrying emotional and memory baggage and ask for His healing and renewing as you spend time with Him. The people in our life deserve our best, and Jesus died and rose again so that we could live free, so let's not allow any "baggage" from the past to continue to dictate to us how we live out today. It is affecting us more than we think!
"Search me, Oh God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way.…" (Psalm 139:23)
"He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds". (Ps 147:2)
Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls." (Matthew 11:28)
Prayer: Lord, please help me understand my emotions and reactions more honestly and heal me of any past hurts, trauma and regret. I want to live my best life now, remember positively, and not be hampered by past events or memories any longer. In Jesus name Amen