When you enter into a state of self-communication, you also activate a method of mental memory file updating called "processing." This minor side benefit of self communication is updating your mind’s filing systems using associative memory. Your mind asks you, by producing a spontaneous memory: “in the past, you have responded to these types of events in specific ways. Do you want to keep the old habit pattern in active response mode, or do you want to update to the new material you are absorbing now?” This process offers you the opportunity to update your files, which is the purpose of these memories. Every time you find yourself remembering about your past, it is because your present circumstances have activated associative memories. Your mental operating system says "I have retrieved data stored in memories that is similar to current experiences”. For example, our experiences with our parents have influenced our decisions and may still be doing so. Perhaps, as you are looking at a piece of clothing, your mom’s voice comes back into your mind saying “I’d never wear something like that.” If you choose to rewrite and update your reaction to a current situation, immediately use the updating gesture. The updating gesture is touching thumb to index finger. Making the choice to upgrade, as indicated by doing the gesture, aids in updating your decision-making functions. For example, a woman prepares to bake a cake and she feels angry and fearful because of her past failures in baking a perfect cake. She is angry because she fears the past is coming back to haunt her. Her experiences have shown her that her methodology may be flawed and she is very hesitant to try again. If the woman can interject this updating gesture and say to herself "that was then, this is now, everything has changed," she will be able to pull herself out of fear and back into the present, which will reinforce her trust in her self and her abilities to produce her desired effect. Examining and confronting the self through analytical processing produces personal growth. Whatever we think and experiencing emotionally is a choice we make, by conditioned response.
