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Building new happy memories is essential to our mental health. They build bonds in our relationships. Building new happy memories builds strength upon our identity. Some of our strongest memories we hold onto are our first time experiences. If its a bad experience then we avoid ever doing it again, but if its a good experience then we do it over again. Some go as far as taking the activity that created the positive memory and making it a hobby and in some cases a business.

According to Health.USNews.COM several benefits are related to good positive nostalgic memories. They are the following.

1. Mood booster – A mood boost is an action, activity that helps fortify against depression, stress and anxiety. Could possibly lower PTSD episodes.

2. Triggers inspiration and motivation – Inspiration is mental stimulation that evokes you to do something creative. Motivation is a process that creates and maintains goal-oriented behavior.

3. Provides glimpse of your authentic self – as we peel back the onion layers to ourselves we become our best versions of ourselves. It is called our authentic self because this is where our words and actions match our core identity.

4. Can help with problem-solving – Identifying, prioritizing, and coming up with a slew of solutions is something we humans naturally do. Without this we are under stimulated and we don’t grow maturely.

5. Helps you handle tough situations in healthier ways – This is how we build our resilience. this creates healthy empathy and altruism meaning the desire to selflessly act for a greater good. One of our strongest acts of compassion as human beings.

6. Can give a greater sense of meaning in your life – A healthy foundation for our approaches to life.

7. Improves relationships – Adding up and combining our six previous listed benefits ultimately lead to healthier, happier relationships which create more grand memories which we then gain more of these seven incremental benefits. Think of it as a positive snowball effect.

I would love it if you, the reader were to participate in a mental health exercise or game rather that I came up with. It’s called “The Adventure Date Challenge”. The rules are simple. Go on a date. It could be with your life partner, a family member or even a pet. You get to set the tone. Visit all four places in the picture below and take a selfie, hashtag your photos with #VCSocialADC and in the comments below share with us your best experience because we love to hear about how you seized the day.