Selective memory

Is your memory as good as you would like it to be?
My "ex" would often tell people that she was a former Southern England ballroon dancing champion although she never was!
On the other hand I'm absolutely certain that I can remember horse-drawn refuse lorries ...and old boys on bicycles extinguishing street gas lamps.
But it is quite possible that my "ex" honestly  believed that she was a dancing champion ...and that my recollections of horses and lamps are completely phoney! Well that is the case according to a report in The Daily Mail last Monday. Referring to studies carried out with 1600 students at the University of Hull it seems that 20% of us have vivid recollections of events that never happened! Events as memorable as seeing dinosaurs and being kidnapped. Apart from highlighting the fallibility of memory the researchers suggest it also offers explanation of how people can have differing accounts of an event or conversation when recalling the detail.
Personally I find this quite reassuring! Knowing that others have memory problems. Mine are the popular varieties: The common short-term recall and the more exclusive retrospective black hole!
I know that psychologists dislike comparisons between the mind and computers but I think there is a useful metaphor here.

I see my retro black hole problem being a "hard drive" storage issue. Loads of data ...which is only to be expected after all these years. But also too many "corrupt files." 
The corrupt files are bad memories. We try to bury them in the archive but they just sit there slowing the system down and impeding access to the good memories. The answer? A "disc clean up and defrag." Going in and rooting out those bad memories. Which of course can be done with the help of a trained hypnotherapist but there are some simple DIY techniques that are also highly effective.

• One is just talking it out with somebody else. It's amazing how what we see as major issues others can see quite differently.
• Another is to write down a full account of the problem. Then take the piece of paper and screw it up and throw it contemptuously over your shoulder.
• Try also picturing yourself in a cinema watching the problem as a movie on the screen. Then step out of yourself and stand to the side looking at yourself watching the movie. Tell yourself that you have now moved on.

Practice these simple reframing techniques over and over and they will work... and you'll find that remembering the good stuff will come easy.
So let me think... when did the "ex" and I win the Southern England Ballroom championships?