SUPER super 8🌟
"To Do or To Have?"
Does your mind usually live more in the past or future? I know we’re allllll trying to live more in the present, but I’m curious if you have a tendency towards one or the other?
Personally, I live mostly in the future. I love daydreaming up future plans, trips, etc.! When my anxiety takes the driver’s seat, it’s also usually about something that hasn’t even happened yet, versus replaying something that already happened.
Speaking of planning a trip- if I had to choose, I’m someone who generally values experiences over material things, like spending money on travelling versus buying a fancy car (though, hello universe I would still like both😂🙏🏻✨) and maybe this is the reason why:
In Gilovich and Van Boven’s studies at Cornell (“To Do or to Have?”), they conclude that while people think that material things will make them happier than an experience, the joy of a purchase usually fades quickly. For example, how often have we been so excited to buy an item of clothing, yet years later we’re totally bored of it? Most items’ emotional value depreciates over time.
On the other hand, their studies found that experiences grow in emotional value over time because they become part of our identity and social connections.
Experiences have the power to bring us happiness for longer amounts of time because we can:
Get excited about planning for the experience! Feeling happy visualizing an experience can bring the same amount of happiness as the actual experience itself!
Being fully present while the experience is happening!
Reliving the experience after its done! In fact, people often remember experiences as better than they actually were. For example, when you look back on your last trip somewhere, do you marinate in the feeling of boredom of all the waiting (lines, airports, trains, etc.!) you most likely had to do? Or do you remember the highlights? Even “bad experiences” you had in the moment usually become the most exciting travel stories you can laugh about later
Knowing all of this, today I realized that lately I’ve been spending more time in my mind thinking about future trips instead of all the amazing ones I’ve already had!
Since studies show that the emotional value grows over time, I’m curious why I haven’t been looking back and reminiscing about experiences like I used to…
When I was a kid, I used to spend hours looking through the photo albums and home videos my mum took to jog my memory. In more recent years, I even had fun looking back on my own Instagram page!
Since being off of Instagram, that’s been out of the question, and I let go of a habit I had last year of looking back at “this day [x] years ago” photos on my phone.
This is why I was surprised that I was surprised I’ve had so much fun editing my Super 8 footage in the last 24 hours! It felt like the best of both worlds: using a material thing to remember experiences.
Since Super 8 doesn’t have audio anymore, I’ve been editing them while listening to my favourite film scores/soundtracks (La La Land, Amélie, Call Me By Your Name, and Pride & Prejudice to name a few…) and it’s made me feel like I’m watching a movie of my life😂! So fun!! It’s really made me want to revisit more experience I’ve had…maybe even for future stories or poems like this one✨:
This made me think about what I shared on this post; that high achievers have a habit of only looking to all the things they still want to accomplish, which is a recipe for misery. If they (we, me…) spend more time listing the things they have already done, they have a greater chance of feeling proud, accomplished, grateful, and happy! This satisfaction of all they’ve achieved so far won’t lead them to stop progressing; it will just help them enjoy the journey along the way.
What about you? Is there a dusty photo album begging for reminiscing? Or how about scrolling through your phone’s camera roll instead of scrolling through social media? How about having an evening with your friends looking through your high school yearbooks? Or asking your partner about their favourite time they did [X]? Or watching home videos with your siblings from when you were kids?
As most people aren’t travelling at this time of year, let me know how you plan on time-travelling back to all of your beautiful memories, or share some of them in the comments section!
Oh man, I'm guilty of looking back ALL the time. Sometimes I put off journaling for a few days and use photos I took throughout my day to write up my entries. I had my best friend from 5th grade over for dinner a few weeks ago and we looked through our yearbook-it was sweet but also sad.