More and more people in our society are experiencing prolonged stress. Although it is known that stress affects memory, the impact on active forgetting remains a question. Our research showed that acute stress impaired active forgetting, depending on the strength of the memories. On the other hand, mindfulness improved the ability to control intentional memory. These findings contribute to our understanding of how the healthy brain actively manages memories, which factors can cause control to fail, and how we can enhance it. This has implications for the development of therapeutic interventions aimed at improving memory control.