Those Darn Guys Who Happen to be Therapists  

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• Archived Blog Post

  Date / Time: 5/5/2009 2:23 PM UTC

  Seeking Balance
  

  Seeking Balance: Memory of the Past, Memory for the Future

  
  

   
  

  There is a beautiful book by a gentleman named Robert Gruden entitled "Time and the Art of Living". The notion of balance in today's discussion brought that book and its lessons back to me. Gruden makes the case that a balanced life, a well ordered life, involves living now with an awareness both of the lessons of the past and a vision of the future. What he is talking about is memory: what neuroscientists might call retrospective memory and prospective memory. Balance in our lives requires us to recall the past: it’s aches, it’s pains, and it's glory. It also requires us to use that retrospective memory and the information it contains to make the best possible decisions as we live in this moment. But, we are not making decisions typically just for this moment. Hopefully, we are making decisions that move us in a particular direction in our future. That ability to see into the future is affected by any neurologic event that has an effect on memory. There has been recent research demonstrating that injuries which affect a person's memory of the past also interfere with the ability to anticipate and plan for the future. That does not have to be an actual brain injury or stroke or a dementing process. Those of us who struggle with balance in our lives frequently experience significant stress. Stress causes the release of cortisol in the brain which also affects memory function. Loss of memory function causes us to lose sight of what's really important, i.e., to lose our vision of the future … which helps to balance and guide us in the present. Maybe stress management strategies are our next topic.

  
  

  
  

  Mark G. Kiefner, Ph.D.

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