The Art of Making Memories

Every year, we are given a fixed number of days. Some days pass us by without leaving a trace and some days we remember forever.

Do you remember your first kiss? Or how the first rays of the spring sun feel? Or how about the best meal you ever had?These memorable experiences are characterized by intensity of perception, depth of feeling or sense of profound significance causing them to stand out in our mind and involve a heightened sense of wonder and awe.

But what ingredients produce these happy memories? Why is it that a piece of music, a smell, a taste can take us back to something we had forgotten? And can we learn to create happy memories and be better at holding on to them?

Combining research on happiness and mnemonics (learning techniques that aids memory retention or retrieval) Meik Wiking explores how peak experiences are made, stored and remembered. Using data and diaries, interviews, global surveys and studies and conducting real-life behavioural science and happiness experiments, the Happiness Research Institute will answer how we can we create perfect moments. Moments that will go down in history. Moments that will shape who we are.