Experiencing lots of flash backs / child hood memories...

I'm 35, I have two kids and a third on the way.

Recently I've been experiencing above normal (for me) flash backs or flashes of childhood memories. They usually come when I'm semi day dreaming or you know, just "somewhere else". I can't remember what would be triggering this state or them appearing.

I was just wondering how many of you guys around my age experience this? Or those older than me, if you experience the same thing and when did it start?

We're talking anything from visual recollection, through memories of senses like sound and smell to emotions.

It's not that it bothers me, 99,5% of the time it's pleasant memories. I just found it funny that I'm having them so much lately.
Do you think it's the playing with my kids that are triggering it? Something else.... the whole coming of age thing? The beginning of my mid-life crisis?
I sense I could easily become a little too nostalgic about some of the memories, since life seemed so much less complicated back then

a reply to: flice

I'm not joking when I say this but for the last few months I've experienced the same thing. Vivid childhood memories and other memories of events that I'm not so proud off

Very strange,

Edit - I'm three years older than you!

originally posted by: flammadraco
a reply to: flice

I'm not joking when I say this but for the last few months I've experienced the same thing. Vivid childhood memories and other memories of events that I'm not so proud off

Very strange,

How old are you?

Do they come at any specific time or situation?

It's interesting to me, because most of them are memories which I can honestly say that I haven't though about in a very long or remembered before at all and they seem pretty random in terms of what time in my life they are about.

a reply to: flice

Happens at anytime, only a couple of times a week on average. I feel remorse when it happens sometimes. It has a physical effect!

I am 46 and have those type of memory "flash-backs" regularly. I have an idea of what it is to me and maybe it will help you welcome them more.

When I was 18 I had a bad horseback riding accident. The saddle slipped and the horse went a little crazy. I started falling with my head going straight for a cement watering trough. Time stopped and I had what some call a "Life Review". Every instance when I had said something that hurt someone, or by not doing or saying something, a person was hurt, came back to me as if I were watching a movie. Some of these instances I had not thought of at all even moments after they had happened. When the review was over, time started up again and I felt like I was pushed and fell off the horse on the opposite side of where I was facing. I ended up very broken, but alive.

Now when I have these memory flash-backs, I see them as an opportunity to forgive. That is what I think our life review is about: forgiving ourselves and forgiving others. Mostly ourselves though. The happy memories are gifts of pure joy.

That is what they are for me

I had a vivid flashback while driving recently. The snow was blowing & drifting over the road in ripples just like it was the morning of the day my mother passed away. I was so far gone in the memory I almost wasn't able to drive.

Could there be some trigger for you like music or a sound , smell, or something visual that causing the flashbacks?

hello flice

perhaps you are comparing then and now. I realise I do this on a regular basis and I feel it is a kind of
check and balance situation.
nice to know the good outweighed the bad.
bed wishes fakedirt.
a reply to: flice

I have them all the time and always have, not such good ones most of the time although this one from much earlier in my life is interesting:
Memories Of The Womb

I imagine what you could be experiencing is some kind of chemical reaction brought on by the smells, sounds, feelings etc of your surroundings (kids, wife, pregnancy etc). We are amazingly complex machines....relatively dumb ones but complex nevertheless.

Welcome to the human condition, enjoy those happy memories.

a reply to: frayedknot

For myself, I interpret those painful flashbacks as a reminder from my higher self of past character/personal mistakes I've made while in this body.
I don't mean to scare anybody, but, frankly, I take such instances to be a preparation for my spirit eventually moving on out of this body into another corporeal body. Clearing the air, we could say, or more correctly, perhaps, cleansing the spirit.

a reply to: flice

I found this post intriguing. I usually am a bit retrospective and enjoy thinking about past experiences. I have noticed over the last week or two memories surfacing that I haven't had for some time. I am also finding it more easy to remember past experiences when fading away to sleep. It's as though I can slip into those memories a bit easier lately.

That is how I understand that type of memory flash back too. Memories are always loaded with emotions. It does seem like a clearing or cleansing to go into them and feel those emotions and deal with them in a gentle, loving way. Some of the harder ones come up over and over until it is forgiven and clear. I've found that afterward, the memories are different, emotionally, and I am able to look at them more subjectively like a lesson.

a reply to: Aliensun

a reply to: Aliensun

Just chiming in to say I'm with you on your explanation - I've been noticing that for me, the flashbacks have been increasing more and more as time goes on.

I think it's a two part system - Remind you of your past, to remind you that whatever you are going through you probably have lived through worse in earlier years. I'm also under the impression that the flashbacks are there to help you prepare for what lies ahead; I'd fully expect that the last couple hours, minutes, or seconds I am here on this earth will be running through the reels of my life, showing me everything.

(Note, if I'm sounding poetic, it's because of the music I'm listening to).

-foss

But I'd love to get a time bearing on these experinces.... to understand if it's just "the times" or if it is somehow biologically based in terms of age and reproduction.

Fx. if I had not had kids by now, would they still come rushing in these flashbacks? Or is it part of some kind of midlife crises as I come to the centerpoint of my life span?

Is it something in the water

Anyways, very interesting to read what you all experience. The brain is a fantastic piece of bloppy energy

Maybe it has more to do with your maturity level than your age. Your brain recognises that it has matured to a level where it will be capable of viewing these past events with a new perspective. It is always craving self improvement, so it is chomping at the bit for a chance to review noteworthy events of the past to see what data can be gleaned from this unique learning experience. It wants to use this opportunity to improve itself, right some of the wrongs of the past, observe the path taken and see if any course corrections are needed. That's my guess anyway.