Create (then document)
Positive Family Memories
for the Future

(You're gunna need 'em.)

Your family memories can generate happiness and foster well being for the rest of your life. Remembering happy times elevates mood. However, happy times will be harder to hang onto than sad ones. So use the family reunion to create positive future recollections.

In truth a family is what you make it. It is made strong, not by number of heads counted at the dinner table, but by the rituals you help family members create, by the memories you share, by the commitment of time, caring, and love you show to one another, and by the hopes for the future you have as individuals and as a unit.
- Marge Kennedy, author

Negative emotions like fear and sadness trigger increased activity in a part of the brain that is linked to memories. Therefore, these emotionally charged, negative recollections are preserved more easily and in greater detail than the good ones. (“Bad Memories Easier to Remember,” by Jennifer Warner, WebMD Health News)

Simply put, this means we have to try harder, to make a conscience effort to remember the good times and the joyful moments. Otherwise bad memories and neutral recollections will crowd out the happy and joyous ones.

Cultivating happy memories takes a lot of time and effort but it's worth it in the end. - Gretchen Rubin, author of the soon-to-be-published book, "The Happiness Project," a memoir about the challenge of being happier.