How We Form Memories and How We Can Use That to Heal
Did you know that most of what we do in a day happens unconsciously?
Reading, driving a car, brushing your teeth, and even getting dressed in the morning all involve a sequence of steps we automatically follow, allowing us to complete daily tasks with minimal conscious thought or effort.
In fact, over 80% of our daily activities are carried out automatically, following a learned but unconscious process.
This is similar to how we experience the world. We do not consciously notice the temperature of the room, the faces we see in the coffee queue, or the ping of our phone when it sends us a notification, but we are aware of it all nonetheless; we perceive everything happening around us and within us, despite lacking focused attention.
And in this way, all our experiences follow a similar structure. They have a beginning, a middle, and an end, even though we’re not consciously aware of it.
How Memories Are Formed
MEMI (Multichannel Eye Movement Integration) operates on the premise that the structure of each of our memories or experiences consists of four core elements:
- Context – where, when, who, and what was involved
- Thoughts – the meaning you attributed to the experience
- Sensory – what you saw, heard, or felt
- Feelings – your emotional response to it
Your brain uses this sensory and somatic data to store your memories. So, the sound of a voice, a facial expression, the image of a setting, or a feeling you experienced at the time. These details are used to encode, store, and later retrieve past experiences.
However, when something highly distressing occurs, the brain's ability to process and integrate information becomes disrupted, resulting in difficulty forming coherent memories and instead leaving sensory fragments, intrusive thoughts, and intense flashbacks.
This disruption stems from changes in the limbic brain region: The amygdala, your internal alarm and warning system, goes into overdrive, activating your fear circuitry and shutting down non-essential organs, bodily functions, processes, and systems. The processing capacity of the prefrontal cortex diminishes, which hampers the hippocampus, as it cannot logically process memories and emotions without the higher-level thinking of the prefrontal cortex.
Therefore, instead of an incident becoming a neatly filed memory, it leaves an imprint that feels vivid, intense, and persistent. It’s as though the moment is still happening, on repeat.
When distressing experiences start to intrude into your daily life, it could be a sign that your nervous system is holding onto this imprint: Trying to protect you from it, not realising that the danger has already passed.
MEMI is founded on the premise of this structural context.
How MEMI Facilitates Healing
MEMI works directly with sensory data by employing structured eye movements across your entire visual field. These targeted eye movements interact with sensory points within that visual field, assisting in reprocessing the imprint and diminishing the charge and intensity of emotion.
One of the most powerful aspects of MEMI is that it is sensory-based and does not require you to discuss the context of the experience. You don’t need to specify who was there or what happened; instead, you are simply asked to focus on your thoughts and feelings at that time.
By utilising a technique called “therapeutic dissociation,” you do not even need to sit in the emotion; you can observe it from a safe distance, witnessing the experience as an external observer.
This fosters a deeper sense of calm and safety, and facilitates gentle healing.
As the emotional charge reduces, the memory remains, but the vivid imprint softens. And your body can finally exhale.
Creating space to return to peace.