October 8th, 2009 → 3:27 am @ andre // No Comments
Just over a decade ago, most people would have laughed at you if you even suggested memory exercises can improve memory. It was once believed, of course, that once your brain matured, it’s fixed and unchanging. According to that theory, memory loss and other cognitive problems are irreversible and inevitable.
But in 1998, a clinical study on the hippocampus (this is the part of your brain that’s responsible for long term memories) indicated that your hippocampus is able to generate new neurons even if you’re in your 90s. The study suggests not only that memory loss is preventable… it’s also potentially reversible.
From that fateful year on, there’s a slew of studies that discovered similar findings… and thus usher in the age of brain plasticity. Brain plasticity is the malleability of your brain – the theory that your brain is alterable and improvable regardless of your age and condition. (Even people who were born with half a brain were able to adapt and thrive).
In this article, I want to introduce you to a few memory exercises to alter your brain and improve your memory. But before I go into the meat and potatoes, let’s first understand how your brain. I think this is crucial to your understanding of the exercises…
Your brain consists of billion of neurons (brain cells). These neurons connect to each other with what is called a synapse. Neurons die and synapse break down every minute of your life. It is this fact that led scientists to believe cognitive decline is inevitable.
To prevent degeneration, those neurons and synapses would have to be stimulated. Like any other parts of your body, your brain adapts and grows as it’s challenged. So when you challenge your brain, it grows and strengthens neurons. At the same time, synapses that are repeatedly used becomes stronger and less likely to break down.
All these neurons and synapses are responsible for all functions in your body, including everything from your heart beat to walking to processing what you see and remembering the stimulants that comes from your 5 senses.
Thus this is principle #1 in improving memory: The more you perform memory exercises, the greater the improvement you’ll benefit from. The strengthen the neurons and synapses responsible for your memory, you’ll simply have to spend some time challenging your memory.
Here’s what you can do: For once, don’t use that grocery list. Try and memorize them instead. Initially, start with 5 items off that list and gradually add one item every 2 to 3 days thereof.
Remembering 5 items should not be a problem but as increase the things you have to remember, you’ll soon have some trouble. That is your memory threshold. Constantly work at overcoming your threshold. This is the same principle of bodybuilding. A bodybuilder will eventually get exhausted lifting a pencil a hundred thousand million times but he won’t grow bigger muscles for it. To build bigger muscles, he has to carry weights that are slightly below his threshold.
Sometimes there’s no need to memorize.
I remember the times when I was in school and I was asked to memorize a bunch of financial formulas. I hate memorizing. So what I did was understand how that formula was formulated. By understanding how it came about, I was able to recall it without actively memorizing it.
In a grocery list example, always tell yourself why you need to purchase a particular item. If you need milk, is it because you want stronger bones or is it because you’re craving for a plate of spaghetti carbonara? Your desires is obviously far more difficult to forget than the list of items in your grocery list. By associating those items with your desires, you’re far more likely to remember them.
Here’s another example: phone numbers. Today, most people would whip out their phones to record phone numbers because they simply can’t remember them. But here’s what you can do: associate phone numbers with a date. Let’s say the phone number is 0422084032.
If say… a hypothetical person would be 32 years old by 04/22/0840, would those numbers be easier to remember? Most experts in memory (people who weren’t born with photographic memory but were able to train for it) associate a list of items they have to remember with a story.
So if you need…
The story would go like this: Mary is drinking milk while eating peanuts while her husband is eating crackers with garlic and drinking coke.
That memory exercise alone would explode your ability to memorize daily items.
