Improving Your Memory
Many people are now interested in keeping their memories sharp, especially when we are trying to remember so much more than years ago. Think about when our grandparents were children. Many of them lived on farms in the same towns for their whole lives. Most of them would only have one or two jobs in their careers. There was no internet or constant streaming news about world and local events. There weren't even 42 jokes in their daily email. The amount of information that we expect ourselves to take in and immediately recall these days is staggering by comparision! The next time you can't remember something, don't immediately panic. It's most likely not a sign that your brain is failing but that it is normal.
All that said, there are ways to help your brain stay sharp and flexible. You can try new things like taking a course at the local community college or taking up a new hobby. You can read new kinds of books or try puzzles of various types. As long as our brains have something interesting to pull us out of our comfortable ruts or habits, our memory functioning will be sharper and more powerful.
Fine tuning memory improvements
Memory isn't just one thing. A memory is actually the end product of different parts of the body and brain working together.
Stage 1:
To start making a memory you have to notice something with your senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell or touch. If you don't notice something, it doesn't become a memory.
Stage 2:
If you do notice something, it goes into whats called your immediate memory. For example, if I say the number 12, if you are paying attention and if you hear me, you can repeat it right back to me. That's the most basic type of memory. Most of what we think we should remember but don't are things that only went into our immediate memory storage. We can repeat it, but we soon forget it. Sadly, this often happens with names of people we meet or telephone numbers that we can't write down fast enough. Don't worry if you forget things that you only heard once or only said once. Attention, all you multi-taskers! To create a memory you need to pay attention and concentrate, and it may take a few seconds of your uninterrupted time to do this.
Stage 3:
If you have something in your immediate memory that your mind or body thinks you should remember longer, like the place that serves the best food or the intersection where you nearly had the car accident, you will automatically do one or more of the things to deepen that memory. You will tell the story to others, you will go over the event in your mind, or you will have an emotional response when you think of the event. These activities deepen memories, much like walking the same way in the yard will create a path in the grass. You can choose to let your mind and body select for you or you can add more memories by choice by doing things that mimic the brain's natural way of remembering. Sit down for a few minutes and remember the event. Write it down with full details. Share with with someone else. Feel the emotions that went along with the event. These steps will deepen the memory and move it to what we call short-term memory. Alas, these too fade with time, unless we refresh them!
Stage 4:
There are some memories that our mind and body think we should have available for years or even a lifetime. These are things like our name, who is in our family, how do we do our job, and what are the best and worst things that ever happened to us. These memories are formed the same way the short-term memories are, but we have refreshed them so often and so well we can go years at a time without needing to practice them.
Think about what you want to remember and choose wisely!
Associations help us remember information. You can use a mental picture, a phrase or a word. For example, you can picture a dog with a bone in his mouth next to a boy with a glass of milk to help you remember to get dog bones and milk at the store. Often times people remember humorous pictures even better. Another way to remember lists of items is to make a phrase that represents the first letter of each item on the list. For example, musicians memorize the lines of the treble staff with the sentence “Every good boy does fine”, representing the notes E, G, B, D, and F. You can create a song like the A, B, C song that teaches the alphabet. If you want real entertainment, get a group of people to sing old commercial jingles -- it's amazing how we keep those in our heads. Another way to remember long strings of information is to chunk it into smaller, bite-sized groups. For example, your phone number might be 512, 917, 5685, instead of 5129175685.
Most people learn best by reading or otherwise seeing information, while others learn better by listening. Learn new information using as many of your senses as possible. Read it, say it out loud, write it down, picture it in your mind, explain it to someone else.
Tips:
B vitamins, especially B6, B12, and folic acid protect your neurons and help make red blood cells to carry oxygen to your brain.
In healthy older adults, there is a slowing in the ability to collect, store, and retrieve new information. However, the memories you’ve accumulated over the years remain largely intact.
Good sleep is essential in helping your body learn, store and retrieve information.
When you are learning new material for work or school, the more you know about a topic, the easier it is to learn new things. This is called relational learning. One of my favorite mentors used to describe it as having the tree to hang the Christmas tree ornaments on. In other words, if you don't have any familiarity with a subject, you will have to spend some time creating a basic foundation in the area, or the bits of data you can put in your memory will have a tendency to fall right back out again.
Every time you encounter something new that you want to remember, think about how it relates to something you already know. The more things it reminds you of the better actually.
Keep your new information organized, use notebooks and day planners rather than sticky notes or the backs of envelopes. Our minds respond well to organization and the physical structure helps us remember the information.
Taking notes in class. That's a pain, isn't it? You have to listen, decide what's important, write it down quickly, then try to make sense of it later. So many people can really improve their use of notes with one piece of advice. Keep two notebooks. Take one to class and do what you always do. But...when you get home, take an hour or so and reorganize and clarify those notes onto your second notebook. You will be amazed at how much better the notes in the second book are. Don't just recopy the words, really think about what the speaker meant and reorganize and edit your notes to reflect that. Highlight any questions you have about things you didn't get down well when you were taking notes and ask about them next class. This type of ownership for your learning will make studying for the exams more of a review rather than a cram.
Speaking of learning, take complex materials and break them down into bite-sized learning points. Remember to learn using as many senses as possible, so read, speak, listen, write and explain the materials for more complete understanding. This is fairly easy to do in well-focused study groups.
Being "well rounded" does help new learning, so watching the History channel, going to a jazz concert, or attending a car show is more than just entertainment, it is helping you put in that foundation to learn more information with less effort later on.
Practice, practice, practice. Wear those neural pathways deeply in your brain and your mind will keep your memories sharp for years to come.