Some people are blessed with incredible memories. For the rest of us, however, it can be difficult to remember each detail of every situation we find ourselves in.

When we forget something, we often feel stupid. It makes us feel pretty dumb to find ourselves standing at the grocery store not remembering what we need to buy there, or to go down to the basement to get something, only to not remember what we needed when we get down there.

Thankfully, new research is saying that you should not worry if you’ve had these mental lapses. In fact, they could be a sign that you are actually very intelligent! University of Toronto researchers Paul Frankland and Blake Richards have just come to the conclusion that old memories in the brain are literally “overwritten” by new memories. This makes it harder for us to remember old impressions we may have had.

Frankland and Richards found that it is actually more useful and even healthier to remember a larger scale of everything and forget small details.

“It’s important that the brain forgets irrelevant details and instead focuses on the things that will help you make decisions in the real world,” Richards explained.

The hippocampus is the part of the brain that stores memories, and it also gets rid of the unimportant details that you don’t need to waste your time remembering. If your brain is full of too many memories, it can negatively impact your ability to make decisions.

“We know that sport increases the number of neurons in the hippocampus,” said Richards. “It’s these very details from your life that are not important, and maybe keep you from making good decisions.”

So next time you forget something small, don’t sweat it, as it is simply a sign that you are more intelligent than you think! SHARE this story so your friends and family can see this as well!