Have you ever left a pot on the stove and forgot about it? How about letting the dog outside and forgetting that he’s out there for an entire night? Yeah, it happens to the best of us. Memory lapses are all too common, but luckily there are some ways in which you can strengthen your memory. Check out this article.
One thing that has been proven to help maintain your memory and brain function over time, is socialization. Having a strong social group and lots of interaction and conversation with family and friends will help to keep your memory flowing freely both now and as you age too.
Try taking a brain boosting vitamin. Certain nutrients have been shown to affect our memory and brain function overall. Ginko Biloba and others are quite often considered to be the best at it. Take a vitamin that is geared towards memory retention or look for ways to incorporate foods rich in these nutrients into your diet.
In order to have a better memory, you will want to have different interests, and try new things. This will keep your mind sharp and open for new memories. In addition, these new neurons will connect to existing neurons, which will then give you a new approach as to how to look at something.
To remember things like turning off the water, place some object that will remind you in a place where you are likely to trip over it! If you have left the sprinklers on for half an hour while you go inside to eat, put your garden gloves in the kitchen sink or some other unlikely place. This will remind you to turn off the water!
Stop telling yourself you have a weak memory. When you say these things you begin to plant the thought in your mind and it becomes a reality. Remind yourself constantly that you have a great memory and you can remember anything as long as you put your mind to the task. You will see an improvement in your recall ability.
Don’t skip on the sleep if you want to improve your memory. It is when we sleep that our brains really go to work. During deep sleep our brains are incredibly active in processing information and trying to understand problems. Skimping on your sleep will start having an almost immediate effect on your memory.
Avoid smoking cigarettes to keep your memory from being negatively affected. Studies have shown that the memory of smokers suffers more than compared to non-smokers. You probably didn’t need yet another reason to quit, but maybe this will be the one that lets you finally put down that pack.
You can find a number of useful books on the topic of memory improvement at your local public library. You can find books written by experts on memory; these books should be able to provide you with new techniques for your own use.
If you have a large amount of information to commit to memory, a good strategy is to break the information down into many separate pieces. It is much easier to remember things in parts, than to remember them as a whole. As a simple example, when trying to memorize a standard United States phone number, you can memorize it as three separate parts consisting of area code, first three digits, and last four digits, as opposed to all ten digits together.
Make your memorization easier by using mnemonic devices. The easiest one is to associate a visual image with the word or name you need to remember. Life like, vivid images linked to hard to memorize or understand concepts can help to speed up the learning process significantly. Think of images from your everyday life to make the process easier and faster.
Improve memory with mnemonics. Use an acronym to remember lists of related things. For example, ‘Homes’ is used to remember the names of the Great Lakes: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior. The first letter of the words in a sentence can represent a list of letters that you have to remember. For example, “Every good boy does fine” can be used to memorize the notes on the lines of a treble clef: E,G,B,D and F.
It may sound silly, but one way to improve memory is to surround yourself with good friends, and to maintain an active social life. A Harvard study suggests that those who had active and fulfilling social lives, showed rates of cognitive decline significantly lower than their less socially active peers.
A great way to help you improve your memory is to start taking alternative driving routes. Taking different routes will keep your mind active by keeping you guessing and alert. Keeping your mind active like this can go a long way in improving your ability to remember things.
A way to improve your brain’s ability to handle tough challenges and remember things better is to spend fifteen minutes to half an hour each day playing brain teaser games like sudoku, crosswords, or electronic brain teasers. These games challenge and stimulate your brain in ways that you often wouldn’t get otherwise.
When you are trying to learn something new and you want to remember it, associate with something you already know. For instance, let’s say you are learning a new phone number, remember it by thinking of a similar phone number. You have a better chance of keeping new information this way.
You need to make sure you focus on the information that you are trying to remember. If you are trying to remember a shopping list, try visualizing the items or write them down to jog your memory. Take your time to repeat information after you hear it so it has a chance of sticking with you.
As you can see, you can employ these small tips and end up with big results. The funny thing about losing your memory is that nothing’s actually lost. It’s all still in there. You just have to train your brain to access the memories correctly. You can do that by using the tips you have just read here.
