Do you enjoy planning and looking forward to a special event with a warm tingle of anticipation, setting an intention for future happiness? Do you look back over favourite photo albums, listen to music you loved in the past, or reminisce about joyful memories, and re-experience the positive emotions they evoked at the time? Or do you live in the moment and focus on simply being happy in the here and now? Perhaps it’s a mixture of all three!
I’ve been musing on these questions while thumbing through a copy of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe brochure – as usual, satisfyingly thick and crammed with temptations – while planning my annual visit. I first went in 2005 and loved the bustling city so much that I vowed I’d return every August to make up for all the years I hadn’t. Pondering which of my unmissable favourites I need tickets for, and which undiscovered delights I might be swayed by – hmm, man in koala suit playing the ukulele? – started me wondering what it would be like if we weren’t able to visualise the future or remember the past. Continue reading