Just as important as working memory, Restak argues, is emotional memory — an essential psychological tool that has found creative expression in everything from sentimental cartography to object-based storytelling to wearable personal histories. Restak writes:

Another aspect of recall is emotional memory, when we relive how we felt at moments in the past — elated, sad, depressed, or angry. When we lose emotional memory of our own youth, we find that we no longer understand young people. If this forgetting progresses, we begin to lose touch with ourselves. And if we allow our emotional memories to disappear, as happens with Alzheimer’s patients, we will find a stranger staring back at us from the mirror.

He recommends an exercise for reacquainting yourself with your emotional memory, one practiced by cultural icons in their letters to their younger selvesand embedded in the heart of the It Gets Better project:

Find a picture of yourself in which you are half of your present age. Stare at the picture for a while. Then write a letter to your older self from the perspective of the younger you in the photo, expressing all of the younger self’s hopes and concerns about the future. Follow this with a letter back from the present self to the younger you, telling that younger self about all the things they will do in their future and who they will grow into. Hopefully you will uncover feelings and memories of things you haven’t experienced for years.

Music. Music ellicits emotion, which tickles memory.