Choose a charged memory from your past. Not a traumatic memory, but something that evokes a strong feeling in you—the one you’re thinking of now.
When you try to hold your memory, you may not have very much detail at all to grasp onto. That’s ok—if you are ‘having a memory’ something is being remembered, even if it’s not much. Maybe there’s that one line of dialogue that still rings in your head, a feeling you had at the time is alive again in your body, or you remember an ambiance, smell, other person, or fixed visual field first. Begin with what you have. Describe what is there.
Write as much as you can until the memories run out or you’ve gone fifteen minutes.
…
Now, reflect on the vantage point from which you wrote about this memory. Was it from the eyes of memory-you, describing your own experience as you experienced the remembered event? Or, did you write as a witness of the scene, from the corner of the room, from above, or, as one of my clients described his vantage point, “in the stands”? How did you see it?
Next, go back and tell the memory again, but from another vantage point—a different angle on the scene from where you where you were writing before. If you were a witness first, writing from some distance, now describe the scene from the vantage point of yourself experiencing it—memory-you. If you first wrote from memory-you’s point of view, now narrate the story as a witness.
Tip!
If you first wrote from an external vantage point and are struggling to access memory-you’s stance, close your eyes and take a few deep breaths, or get up and walk around the room. This will help you drop in to the body—you remember a lot with your body, so that’s where you want to be.
If you’re feeling resistance, you can also begin by writing about what it feels like to remember, or to try to remember. I promise that more details and thoughts to record will come up as you write, it’s a guarantee.
See what comes out in the two different tellings—each storyteller has a different set of facts. Have fun, be brave!