The basic foundation of this concept is that we tend to think of our memory as a video camera. Believing that our mind is recording our lives accurately, we are also duped into trusting it as a reliable unit of storage. This is false. Our minds are actually pretty damn faulty in that manner. However, the brain is powerful in its processing power, and from evolution, we have become efficient at noticing patterns and weaving fragments together by association. Because of this, we tend to give meaning to the bits and pieces that we do in fact, remember.
So instead of having perfectly accurate footage, we actually have scraps of the event lumped together, and these connections form our recollection. This is why we do well memorizing with jingles (think commercial slogans) or memorizing information by acronyms. And the strings that weave these chunks together, the associations, are the meanings that we attach to events. Experts on a certain subjects don't "know-it-all," they just know how to get there faster because their web of associations is more efficient.
The fact that our mental capacity is actually based on pattern recognition and not storage means that the act of recollection is a creative and destructive act. By that I mean because we think with meanings and connections, we're putting together pieces that becomes a subjective whole. Moreover, each time that we try to remember an event, our brain erases the past "versions" of these memories-- like a rewrite. This is why studies show that the first recollection is often the most accurate even though they get more specific and detail-rich as the witness repeats their accounts. This is also why false confessions are possible especially during duress (e.g. torture.)
Hopefully I didn't completely butcher that concept. Fuck it, I'm too lazy to proofread.
TL;DR: Our recollections are not of events, but rather the meanings that we give to parts of the event.
In essence, this means that our memories are subject to negotiation. And yes, we can manipulate our own remembrance of the past. Because we're not really changing events, but our rather our perception of the events.
This is why nostalgia is so easy to fall into. Things in the past can seem so inviting. I guess the reason why I was interested in this concept was because I wrote on this a few times already (I totally didn't realize this until a second after I wrote the previous sentence.) Either way, the power is in our hands, and scarily enough, it is also in other people's hands. This certainly means that it becomes easy to dwell on traumas or beautiful moments as remembered, but I would like to think that by knowing that we are often seeing things that we want to see, we can begin to unravel these meanings consciously.
If it were up to me, I'd make it all beautiful.
And instead of living in it, I'd smile and walk away in satisfaction.
It was all beautiful.
