The blessing of natural forgetfulness is necessary for the safety of your brain.. Here are 7 of its benefits

In a world full of information, a culture prevails that pressures us to enhance our cognitive skills and train our brains to retain as much information as possible;

It views forgetting as an annoying and negative process that serves no purpose or a precursor to amnesia or Alzheimer's;

It becomes essential that we be able to reduce the noise in our heads, by ignoring unhelpful details, so that they do not affect our attempts to learn and acquire new ideas.

In this case, "some routine forgetfulness or memory lapses is not only considered normal, but is necessary for the proper functioning of the brain, but is just as important as the ability to remember."

That's the summary of a new book, "Forgetting: The Benefits of Not Remembering," authored by Dr. Scott Small, director of the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at Columbia University.

This conclusion was confirmed by a recent study by neuroscientists Thomas Ryan of Trinity College Dublin and Paul Frankland of the University of Toronto;

She concluded that forgetting is "a natural mechanism and a hidden feature in the brain, without which it becomes impossible to live our lives normally; it also helps our minds to access the most important information, when we are exposed to stimuli beyond our energy; it saves our memory from damage over time."

Some routine forgetfulness or memory lapses is not only normal, but essential for proper brain functioning, but just as important as the ability to remember (Getty Images)

Our brains hide memories and never lose them

Forgotten information is not lost, but sometimes it is difficult to access it;

It is stored in a group of neurons called the engram, which is constantly working - especially during sleep - to sort out which memories to keep and which ones to forget, "in order to give us enough flexibility to act better, rather than trying to Bringing back memories that may not be useful.

“Memories are there and never lost, but forgetting occurs when the Engram cells are hard to stimulate, so our memories look like a locked vault, we can't remember the codes to unlock them,” says Dr. Ryan.

Even those with 'super autobiographical memory' (HSAM) who can remember many life experiences in detail;

They may not be able to remember phone numbers or where the keys are.

The above relates to "normal" forgetting, but the researchers believe that "in conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, there is a significant reduction in access to Engram cells, which may cause (pathological) forgetting".

Memories can compete and interfere with each other, hindering our ability to retrieve information;

Especially when events are similar (Getty Images)

Why do we forget?

Dr. Mark Leary, Professor of Psychology at Duke University, USA, reveals 3 important reasons:

Storage failure:

When you find it difficult to remember someone's name a few minutes after you meet them, it's not forgetting;

But what happened is that you "didn't even store his name in your memory, in order to remember him again";

If information is not stored in the brain properly, "memory recall becomes poor, or it may not be retained at all."

Interference:

where memories can compete and interfere with each other, hindering our ability to retrieve information;

Especially when two or more events are similar, or when new information is stored in the brain, it interferes with old information.

For example, you use different passwords for your accounts, and one of them interferes in memory with other passwords, and affects your ability to recover them.

Absence of cues:

Sometimes we cannot retrieve memories automatically, without cues or (signs) that have occurred at the time of their storage.

Seeing the home and street of your childhood can be a powerful opportunity to immerse you in memories, once the motivational cues are available;

Although you have not thought about it for many years.

Bringing back only one memory and forgetting others enhances our ability to dismiss the unimportant (Getty Images)

Benefits of natural forgetfulness

Most people want to maximize their memory, but recent research suggests that forgetting is essential in a world that is noisy, vibrant, complex and sometimes annoying.

Because of the following benefits:

Creative thinking:

The researchers found that “forgetting may enhance the ability to think creatively, by obstructing the retrieval of useless information, to allow new information or ideas to pass.”

Forgetting thus helps us prioritize, and make better decisions, “by giving us the flexibility to extract ideas from the mounds of stored information”;

According to Dr. Small.

Freedom from the prison of pain:

Forgetting helps us manage our complex lives, “by encouraging us to go beyond the most unpleasant things in our daily lives, and integrate us into reality in a way that makes us positive”;

As Professor Robert Kraft says.

Conversely, not forgetting hurt, minor resentment, and traumatic experiences can burden our lives, and leave us trapped in pain.

Accurate and selective remembrance:

it is sufficient to relive one memory, and forget the others;

Enhances our ability to rule out what is unimportant, “Reducing unimportant events makes us better able to remember important events”;

According to Professor Kraft.

Calming a Burning Brain:

Forgetting allows us to forget the anger and pain of the past by relieving symptoms of PTSD, “which makes painful or terrifying memories embedded in the mind like fragments, impeding the brain’s normal recovery,” says Dr. Small.

When remembering doesn't work:

"What does it do for us to remember an old password we no longer use, or to offend a friend unintentionally, for example? Forgetting would certainly be better. It helps us move forward into the future, leaving the past behind."

Focus:

Professor Kraft tells us that in order to remember important ideas and images, we need to quickly forget those that are unimportant;

Here comes the role of forgetting, which allows us to focus, by preventing intrusive images and thoughts of memory that distract us;

For example: what am I going to prepare for dinner, or what is the funny scene from last night's movie, and the like;

than staying for a long time in consciousness.

Protection:

Some researchers believe that forgetting is linked to morals;

The persistence of wrong thoughts in the mind, may lead to immoral actions;

Here, forgetting helps us to get rid of this kind of thoughts.