Do semantically related experiences tend to get stored in adjacent areas of the br,ain? Have you sometimes noticed that thoughts giving rise to a certain set of feelings happen to retrieve prominent associated experiences?

The statement makes sense in light of the fact that a storage medium as dense as the brain, can be hypothized to be efficient in information storage and retrieva mechanisms.
There of course are bound to be subtlities of differences amongst individuals, and I speak from personal experiences and observations; for my mind is the only equipment here, that I can afford to play with.
And then I'd assume that the retrieval of memories may vary on individual basis, depending on the intensity of thought process and the profoundness of associated feelings.

Subconcious automatic thoughts generated by exposure to experiences, seem to retrieve prominent associated episodes. I've noticed that reading intractable analysis or mathematical details in publications or course curriculum, sometimes generates feelings of frustration and helplessness; the intensity tends to be high especially when the time I spend tends to be more that anticipated. I frequently used to be reminded of romantic rejection with this young woman; the episode I presume was also associated with feelings of frustration, sadness and helplessness; much because of my prolonged emotional investment and attachment. I'd also think that the experience was prominent then, and hence'd get automatically retrieved when associated feelings were excited.

Here are some specifics from the experience: I get stuck while reading a paper; the task takes more time than anticipated. I get automatic "hot" thoughts, "I am not smart enough, I am nor being able to wrap this up quickly". "I was foolish enough to assume that this wouldn't take too long", "I'm not scruplous enough while making time estimates of work".
Presumbly, the neural connections map the ecperience to these assciated thoughts. The mapping may in part be a permanent hardwiring and in part my learned response to such experiences. The feelings related to the experience are are those of frustration, inferiority and helplessness. I'm not sure what mechanics lead to generation of these feelings as a consequence of though process that I mentioned above. Anyway, I'd experience that the associated memory of this romantic episode gets loose and retrieved.

The storage of experiences seems to me like a hash table, its key being a set of feelings and content being experiences that are semantically related vis-a-vis these feelings. The key is abstract and the content is three dimensional; if there were to be no related experiences, or the ones that have faded away, then the content'd look like a flat plane. Otherwise there'd be peaks in the plane representing experiences and memories; with the peak heights correponding to the intensity of the feelings that the retrieval of such experience is likely to excite.

So, basically, when an experiences has to be added to the hash table, the associated key is found and the three dimentional content is retrieved. In the process of retrieval, the mind experiences feelings associated with the key and also during the process of addition to the content plane, the most prominent peak thereat gets transfered to the concious memory; and hence probably my romantic rejection reminiscence on reading a research paper!

An endeavor to analyze such experiences helps me recognize and tame them. Imagine feeling frustrated and stuck. What'd it feel like to tell yourself not to feel frustrated. You probably would end up feeling more frustrated. If, however, you were to spend some time emphathizing with yourself, just as you probably would with a close friend, it perhaps will do the job. Try that!

I had done the above analysis real time. After that, I could read my research paper pretty fast, without feeling frustrated, defeated and helpless. Here's the fun part. The fact that I could succeed in taming my feelings led to confidence and probably a bit of euphoria; I was reminded of this gathering where I could impress the ladies present, and I found myself thinking of ways in which I could have been better.
Does this provide another reason to believe what I said earlier: semantically related episodes tend to get stored in adjacent areas of the brain.

Well, one last thing, your level of optimism is essentially what signals you send to your mind in response to experiences. Contrast these explanations: "I am not good enough, hence am finding it difficult to follow the details in this paper" with "Well, this stuff is pretty cryptic; seems like I'll have to spend some more time on it".
Now, which is an optimistic explanation that'd help me strengthen my self-esteem?

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