The Art of Making Memories: How to Create and Remember Happy Moments

“As long as you live, keep learning how to live. And remember: one day, your life will flash before your eyes - make sure it is worth watching.”

“Our lives are not the days that have passed, but the days we will remember forever.”

“There are important moments that make up our life's narrative. We remember the defining moments in our lives, the moments that made us who we are, the moments where we became who we hoped we could be. As a happiness researcher, I have observed that happiness is often found when three views align: who we feel we are, who we want to be and how others see us. When our loved ones see us and love us for who we really are, and when we manage to become who we know we can be, that is where we find happiness.”

“Despite being faulty, despite the fact that our memory is biased by peaks and ends, it is still worth something. And maybe our happiness depends not only on what we can remember but also on what we are able to forget. Too much past can be paralyzing. We want to hold on to our happy memories, but we also want to be able to let go of the past, to live in the present and plan for the future.”

“Sometimes, it isn’t what the taste is like but what that taste reminds us of that is the attraction.Days when we are emotional might be some of our happiest days—but emotional days might also be some of our unhappiest.Stepping out of your comfort zone can be the first step towards making more memories.So, once in a while, when planning your day off, make sure you put the options through the Ten Years’ Time test. What will I remember in a decade?My embarrassing moments lose some of their power if I take control of them and laugh at them.Sharing our past with someone is an ingredient in the recipe for falling in love.”

“Special photos should get special treatment. So take active steps to preserve your photos and to protect yourself from digital amnesia. Bring your photos out of the digital universe and into real print. The act of being proactive in preserving your digital photos to make them last for decades and for the next generation might well be one more happy memory.”

“I see photos as the key to a vault of memories. If the key was lost, I fear that the memories would be sealed off forever. They bear witness to how time has passed. As I see them, memories resurface, or snapshots of emotions, then a whole range of other connections start to be made. I look at the pictures and feel grateful for every time someone pressed down on the shutter.”

“Happy memories can be bittersweet, but they also assure us that we are valued as people, that we have deep connections with other people and that we have led a meaningful life.”

“When choosing what to do, take into account what you are most likely to remember in ten years' time.”

“Happy memories are moments when we became what we dreamed we could be.”

“Todos hemos vivido momentos que queremos recordar, todos hemos vivido momentos que queremos olvidar.”

“It might be the reason why life seems to speed up as we get older. When we're in our teens, there are a lot of firsts, while firsts at fifty are rarer.”

“To paraphrase one of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century, Winnie-the-Pooh: you don’t know you are making memories, you just know you are having fun.”

“To me, the good life – a full life, a rich life – is a life both of purpose and pleasure. It is when life offers satisfaction with the present, hopes for the future and peace with the past. Happiness is not a one-ingredient dish.”

“In addition, for more than thirteen years Alejandro has been collecting his own happiness data. Every day, he records a happiness score from 1 to 10. Has this day been a good day? What have I been doing? How happy have I felt? Would I like to repeat this day another day?”

“A great sense of meaning in life goes hand in hand with overall life satisfaction and how happy you felt a day ago. To me, the good life - a full life, a rich life - is a life both of purpose and pleasure. It is when life offers satisfaction with the present, hopes for the future and peace with the past. Happiness is not a one-ingredient dish,”

“Memories are made when our wanderlust are unleashed. When we're travelers. When we're explorers. When we're adventurers. When we hunt for treasure - and that treasure is a memorable life. Making memories is to embrace the travel-often mantra. You can always make money - you can't always make memories.”

“There is no doubt that some of our most meaningful and memorable moments are when we connect with other people. It does not have to be the big days, the weddings and births. It can also be the connections we form on a daily basis. The tiny moments which may go unnoticed or seem insignificant to others can be those moments that never leave us, those moments when the small things in life turn out to be the big things in life.”