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Join coach Molly Watts on the Alcohol Minimalist Podcast to explore mindful drinking, behavior change, and mental wellness. This show offers science-based strategies to help you break drinking habits and overcome anxiety linked to alcohol use. Whether you're an adult child of alcoholics or seeking peace with your drinking, discover tools for lasting change without shame or guilt. New episodes every Monday and Thursday.
Becoming an alcohol minimalist means:
Choosing how to include alcohol in our lives following low-risk guidelines.
Freedom from anxiety around alcohol use.
Less alcohol without feeling deprived.
Using the power of our own brains to overcome our past patterns and choose peace.
The Alcohol Minimalist Podcast explores the science behind alcohol and analyzes physical and mental wellness to empower choice. You have the power to change your relationship with alcohol, you are not sick, broken and it's not your genes!
This show is intended for educational purposes and does not constitute medical advice. If you are physically dependent on alcohol, please seek medical help to reduce your drinking.
Hey. Welcome to Think Thursday from the Alcohol Minimalist Podcast. Think Thursday is all about your beautiful, brilliant human brain. We're talking neuroscience. We're talking behavior change.
Speaker 1:We are talking about your mindset. Are you ready to get started? Let's go. Hey there. Welcome to Think Thursday.
Speaker 1:This is the part of the week where we take a beat, slow down, and dive into the power of our beautiful, brilliant human brains. Each week, we dive into neuroscience, mindset, behavior change, not because we're broken or need fixing, but because understanding how our brains work is really a game changer for building life and building a life that feels aligned and empowered and, of course, peaceful. Today, we're gonna talk about something that feels really good even if we don't always know why, and I'm talking about reminiscing. That warm, fuzzy mental walk down memory lane. And here's the thing about reminiscing.
Speaker 1:It's actually not just a sweet pastime. It's psychologically important, and we're gonna talk all about it. I and if you are already hearing the little rubber band in your head, I'm sorry because it's been with me all day since I started talking about or thinking about this episode. Walking through the park and reminiscing. Right?
Speaker 1:Yeah. Well, we're gonna break down what reminiscing actually is, why it feels so good, what happens in the brain when we do it, how we can evoke it on purpose, and why it seems to show up more often as we get older. So let's get into it. Reminiscing is a mental reexperiencing of the past, often with emotional coloring. It right?
Speaker 1:So it's not rote memory recall. We're not trying to remember where we left our car keys, where we where we parked the car even, but we are remembering something that is rich in personal significance. And reminiscing is often tied to identity, to feelings of meaning, and to connection, and that's why it's so important. It's not just what happened. It's how it made you feel.
Speaker 1:It's more emotional, more detailed, often very warm and vivid. And like I said, it's not just some sweet pastime, it's actually really important. You're not just remembering what happened, you're refeeling it. You're placing yourself back in the moment. From a neuroscience perspective, reminiscing engages the default mode network.
Speaker 1:And we've talked about the DMN a few times here on Think Thursday. That is the brain's system for inward focused activity. This network includes regions like the medial prefrontal cortex, the posterior cingulate cortex, and the hippocampus. And these areas are deeply involved in memory, identity, and self reflection. When we reminisce about positive experiences, we trigger the release of dopamine.
Speaker 1:Everybody knows what dopamine is. It's that feel good neurotransmitter that is associated with reward and motivation. And this is part of why nostalgia is so emotionally satisfying. It quite literally lights up your brain's reward centers. Research published in Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience, Spear et al, 2014, showed that participants who engaged in positive reminiscence activated the ventral striatum, and that is a core part of the brain's reward system.
Speaker 1:So this is the same area that responds to things like chocolate, romantic connection, you know, possibly alcohol, if you've developed that kind of reward system for it. And in fact, a a 2013 study in social, cognitive, and effective neuroscience found that nostalgia increased self esteem, social connectedness, and even perceived meaning in life. So let me say it again. Just thinking fondly about the past can increase your sense of meaning and connection. So this is definitely a psychological tool, that you want to keep in your tool belt.
Speaker 1:Right? It's something you want to be aware of. There is a growing field of psychology and gerontology that looks specifically at reminiscence and life review. And these aren't just reflective practices, they're actually powerful interventions. In older adults, structured reminiscence therapy, there's actually a therapy around reminiscing, has been shown to reduce depressive symptoms, anxiety, and even physiological markers like increased cortisol levels.
Speaker 1:So we've talked before about on Think Thursday about cortisol and how the elevated cortisol is a reflection of stress, and so you can see how reminiscing is something that you can use to help you mitigate even, you know, or lower your your cortisol levels. A 2014 meta analysis in aging and mental health concluded that reminiscence therapy significantly improves quality of life, mood, and well-being in both clinical and nonclinical populations. So what that means is that for people that are experiencing actual depression, and they they is even some study some, study on this with people with dementia. So it was a lot of a lot of really good work with regards to reminiscence therapy. But for those of us that are nonclinical, that is where you know, this is great stuff too because, like I said, reminiscing helps us reinforce our self our sense of identity.
Speaker 1:It helps us make sense of life events. It strengthens our feelings of connection to others, and it helps us experience emotional regulation and increased calm. And here's the best part. You do not need a therapist or a formal setting. You can use the power of reminiscing on your own anytime.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about it. If reminiscing is such a valuable tool, how do we in intentionally access it? Here's a few way a few ways that research and life tell us will work really well to help us reminisce. I kind of led there just at the beginning of the show when I was singing, but music music is perhaps the most powerful trigger in terms of reminiscing. It bypasses the analytical brain and taps directly into emotion and memory.
Speaker 1:This is because music processing overlaps heavily with the limbic system, particularly the amygdala and the hippocampus. So, you know, fire up those old songs, bring back the eighties, please, and definitely allow it to help you reminisce. Number two, smell. Olfactory cue cues are a really great way to help you, you know, trigger a reminiscent feeling. Smell is wired directly into the brain's emotion center.
Speaker 1:There's no detour through the cortex, and that's why the smell of sunscreen can take you straight to a a treasured vacation or back to a childhood summer. I, for one, love, this is a weird memory, but it is something that's very, very reminiscent and strong for me, and I've experienced it many times in my life. When I was a kid, I was little, and my sisters are quite a bit older than I am, and they were tasked with taking care of me often. And they were both involved in theater school. And I very young, so I was three, four while they were in high school.
Speaker 1:And, they would take me up to the high school at night. And with my little sleeping bag, I'd lie on the side of the set while they while the while the high schoolers were practicing or working on the sets. And I got to lay there, and I'd often get to get a little snack from the teachers, like, you know, vending machines. And so the smell of stage paint, this if you know that smell when you're on backstage in a theater, that smell is so strong, such brings up such wonderful warm memories for me of my sisters. It's, it's one of those olfactory cues.
Speaker 1:Number three is photos or physical objects. Touching something from the past, a worn paperback, a recipe card, an old scarf activates memory networks and often elicits emotional memory more vividly than words can. So look at something, look at photos, hold on to something. And number four, storytelling. Sharing memories with others doesn't just reinforce social bonds.
Speaker 1:It actually helps encode the memory more deeply. And hearing someone else's stories often triggers your own. You have heard me talk about it, talk about my strong core group of of girlfriends that I've had since sixth grade here on the show, and I guarantee you that our our ability to, storytell together, And now as we get older, of course, it's really helpful because someone else will remember something that I don't remember and vice versa. So it's not only helps with recollection, but definitely increases that bond and makes that bond even more important to all of us over time. Number five, writing or journaling.
Speaker 1:Prompted writing, especially when using sensory details, can transport us into the emotional texture of a past experience, and it helps you see maybe lessons in its value or simply feel more grounded by it. I love writing descriptively about, something like that in the past. I think it kind of gives you an idea too much like storytelling. Right? You can write it from the perspective of a story and not necessarily just your own personal opinion, and I think that is, really valuable too.
Speaker 1:But it's re evoking the memory and getting that, that emotional identity and the warm feeling from it is just something that happens when we use sensory details when we are writing things down. So that's another. So music, smell, photos, physical objects, storytelling, writing, or journaling. These are all ways that you can evoke reminiscing in your own life. As we move through life, our brains naturally begin to shift from a future focused mindset to a more meaning focused one.
Speaker 1:And this is part of a healthy developmental arc, not a sign of getting stuck in the past, but a drive to make sense of your life story. And psychologist Eric Erickson described this as the stage of integrity versus despair, a time when we bet we begin looking back on our lives and evaluating their meaning and their coherence. The psychological term for this is life review, and it's considered really, like I said, an important developmental task in midlife and later years. And according to Erickson's psychosocial stages, the later stage of life is all about integrating life experiences and achieving a sense of wisdom. So if you find yourself drifting back to memories more often these days, first of all, that's normal, and it's not regression.
Speaker 1:It's actually growth. Research from Harvard's grant study, one of the longest longitudinal studies ever conducted, found that individuals who spent time reflecting on their life experiences with compassion and curiosity, two of those tools that we use all the time, reported higher life satisfaction in their later years. So like I said, reminiscing is not about longing for the past. It's about using the past to build peace in the present. Here's your invitation this week.
Speaker 1:Take ten minutes. Hold out a photo album. Play a song from your senior year. Light a candle that smells like your childhood home. Hold a beloved object in your hands.
Speaker 1:Or call a friend and say, remember when? Use these cues to help you reminisce and reflect. What values were alive in that memory? What version of you shows up there? What strength or softness did you carry then that you might want to bring into today?
Speaker 1:You're not escaping the present by looking back. You are just reinforcing who you are. You're gathering the evidence that you want, that you've been resilient, that you've been joyful, curious, and connected, and you still are. Reminiscing can be a powerful way to anchor yourself in your true identity. And especially when we're working on changing long standing habits, right?
Speaker 1:It allows you to revisit versions of yourself that felt strong, joyful, and grounded. It can remind you that you have felt peace before, and you can again. And that's really the power of reminiscing. Right? Thanks for spending Think Thursday with me.
Speaker 1:As always, keep learning, keep thinking, be really kind to yourself. You're doing beautifully, and reminisce this week. Okay? Until next time. Choose peace, and I will see you on Monday.