One of the (many) exercises we did involved us thinking about particular times - times when we'd been happy, or nervous, or proud - and bringing them to the forefront of our mines. Making them big, and colourful. Remembering how we felt.
It was a really powerful exercise and for me, demonstrated how easily you can change the way you're feeling.
One of the most interesting things, though, was finding out how people "store" their memories. One of the people on the course imagined that hers were stored in an old toy chest that she had to open to get the thoughts from. Mine were in a glass jar that I could carry with me, and access whenever I wanted.
I probably haven't explained that properly, and I'm coming across as a mental case, but it makes sense in my head and was really interesting at the time!
A while after the course, I was struggling a bit with my depression, and, whilst I often looked in my mental jar of happy thoughts, I decided that actually, it would be quite nice to have a physical jar, too.
I bought a jar relatively cheaply and decorated it (albeit, not very well - it could probably do with redoing) and then added thoughts to pieces of paper and threw them in. The jar sits on my book case.
Some of the thoughts are general, others more specific about particular feelings at specific times.
I love that if I've had a bad day, I can open my jar and spend some time with my happy thoughts. Or, when I have an AWESOME day, I can add some happy memories in.
How do you remember the good times?
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