Top 5 tricks to improve your memory

In the present times, we are surrounded by information or rather consumed by it unable to decide what to process and what to let go. Emails, news, pointless meetings, traffic updates, chitchat from family members are the daily sources of this unnecessary chatter. It can be concluded that one can only remember so much. This is how the I-am-forgetting-something cycle starts.  

Our brain is an extraordinary organ, with many wonderful qualities. One of them being the ability to forget. Forgetting is not all bad. If we remembered ALL that we consumed, our brains will be like clogged alleys where everything is jammed and we can't recall what our name is. Frequently forgetting trivial things like picking up milk or daily ration from the store, is not a thing to be proud of.  

Forgetfulness

Daily Forgetfulness is often an attention problem and not a retention problem. Dr. Charan Ranganath, professor of psychology at the University of California Davis exclaims, “if we’re not paying attention to something, we will never really get a good memory of it to begin with.” This forgetfulness is different than the memory loss experienced during Neurodegenerative disorders. The line of treatment for these are different than what will be outlined here.  

Coming back to the rusty memory. The cause is often lack of attention. Why this matters is because memory consolidation is an active process. We receive information through our senses. When we pay attention to those signals (just like you are reading this article), it goes to our short-term memory or the immediate memory. When we rehearse this information, it gets stored to our long-term memory from where we can retrieve it when needed.  

Forgetfulness occurs when there is an error in the first step. The information that is not attended to properly gets lost. Therefore, beating oneself up for having a poor memory isn’t helpful. It is not the memory but one’s ability to pay undivided attention.  

Here are 5 tips to improve your memory

1. Start paying undivided attention to important events and interactions  

Absentmindedness and multi-tasking are the culprits. Until we are engaging in multi-tasking, we can never encode the information. If you are on a call, you will never remember where you kept your keys.  

Stop multitasking and start focusing on one thing at a time. Mindfulness is the key to this concern. Practicing simple mindfulness techniques like body scan, meditation or breathing helps in improving memory. Another technique is PLR (pause, link, rehearse). Make an association and rehearse it so that the recall becomes better.  

2. Keep learning  

Stagnation is a memory killer. The more we use the brain, the sharper it becomes. Researchers suggest that learning continuously either in the form of educational advancement or developing a novel skill builds and preserves brain connections.  

3. Make every day more memorable  

Nelson Dellis, five-time USA Memory Champion and memory coach says that he has made his daily life more memorable. He is a visual learner. He often visually exaggerates the information he is trying to remember. For instance, if you kept your keys in a key holder, visualize that the keys were eaten by a leaf monster who resides in your house. He suggests that we make things as weird as possible as we tend to remember weird details.  

4. Retrospection  

This is one technique I can swear by. Take 10 mins daily to revisit the day. Try to retrace the footsteps as vividly as possible. One month of this practice gives guaranteed results.  

5. Use preventive techniques

Memory degeneration is a part and parcel of life. Learning how our memory works gives us a special power over it. It is synonymous with knowing our blind spots. Memory is a skill that can be practiced and strengthened. Proper nutrition, sleep, brain gym etc. are known methods that strengthen the memory. Use them to power up your memory shield.  

Conclusion

It is easy to blame it on “bad memory.” Change the narrative and experience the power it holds. It is easier to read the article but difficult to schedule the tasks in our daily routine. Our life is our ship. I have given you some power ups to strengthen the engine. The call is your captain to decide the direction of the ship.

If you or your loved ones are struggling with memory, then get it touch with the experts at https://www.transformhappily.com/ and call us at 1800 833 8747.