" On a very basic level, you are what you remember – your very identity depends on all of the events, people and places you can recall. Improving your memory will help you develop a quicker, more accurate retrieval of information that will increase your intelligence. "  From,   The Art of Doing  by Camille Sweeney and Josh Gosfield

 When we relive how we felt at moments in the past – elated, sad, depressed, or angry. When we lose emotional memory of our own youth, we find that we no longer understand young people. If this forgetting progresses, we begin to lose touch with ourselves. And if we allow our emotional memories to disappear, as happens with Alzheimer's patients, we will find a stranger staring back at us from the mirror.

Here is  an exercise they  recommend for reacquainting yourself with your emotional memory.

Find a picture of yourself in which you are half of your present age. Stare at the picture for a while. Then write a letter to your older self from the perspective of the younger you in the photo, expressing all of the younger self's hopes and concerns about the future. Follow this with a letter back from the present self to the younger you, telling that younger self about all the things they will do in their future and who they will grow into. Hopefully you will uncover feelings and memories of things you haven't experienced for years.

I found this to be a really interesting exercise, interesting to review my ' life ' from  back then and my current perspective.  Plenty food for thought.

Hoping you will enjoy it and find it as revealing as I did.