Relationships

This Video Shows The Weird Way Your Brain Changes Your Memory Of Past Relationships

by Candice Jalili

So you've been with your new boyfriend for months now. He couldn't treat you better, and you couldn't be more in love with him.

But, you can't help but think about your ex from time to time.

You remember the time your ex bought you flowers or the time he surprised you with tickets to your favorite band's concert, and you can't help but think about how you were so much happier with him.

But a new video by The School of Life explains that our memories aren't serving us so well in this case.

Basically, the video shows how the human brain has a tendency to romanticize our past experiences when we think our current ones aren't so hot.

So when you're remembering how "happy" you were with your ex, you're forgetting about the time he didn't show up for your birthday dinner. Or the time he cheated on you and lied about it. Or all of the (many) times he made you cry.

The video also delves into why our memory can't always be trusted, as "memory is a hugely unreliable and therefore reckless instrument."

The narrator explains the example of what it feels like when you're in a relationship, and your brain starts romanticizing your single days and how you wish you could get those back.

The human brain has a tendency to romanticize our past experiences when we think our current ones aren't so hot.

All you remember is the freedom you had to do what you want when you want, which totally cancels out all of the time you spent feeling lonely and sad when you were single.

But later in the video, the narrator asks viewers to imagine they had an award-winning cinematographer following them around for all of their highest and lowest moments.

In this case, the video explains how we would then remember the past with some pretty depressing facts:

We would realize that, though we are sad now, we were also sad then. We would accept with good grace and a touch of dark humor that life simply gives us few opportunities to be content.
When you're remembering how 'happy' you were with your ex, you're forgetting about the time he didn't show up for your birthday dinner.

MAKES SENSE, DOESN'T IT? Thought so.

In their own words, The School of Life, who created and released the video, is "a place that tries to answer the great questions of life with the help of culture."

You know, like the questions that we actually care about knowing the answers to, but we don't learn in school.

Watch the video below for more info on The School of Life:

Citations: How Do Relationships Affect Memories? You May Be Unrealistically Romanticizing Single Life (Medical Daily)