Simple Strategies And Habits To Give Your MEMORY A Permanent Boost!
Know the scientific facts about memory and become a memory athlete in no time.
There is a very common misconception prevailing about our mental potentials which states that we use only 10 percent of our brain at any given moment. Unlocking the rest of the brain makes you a superhuman and it can only be achieved via mystical ways. However, scientific evidence points to the contrary. Imaging of an active brain involved in mental thought processes has shown that people use almost 100 percent of their brain and there is no such “dormant” area in the brain which is left to unlock.
Does that mean our mental potential is limited to what we are gifted with? Absolutely NOT!
For instance, let’s talk about memory, which is considered as a fairly good indicator for someone’s mental potential. You might think your memory is limited to the capacity you are born with and you have to live with it for your entire life while envying those who can easily memorize a lot of information. This does not have to be the case. Yes, to a certain extent our memory is determined by genetic factors. But, the rest is upon us to explore and improve. You must have seen or heard about memory championships taking place all over the world and the competitors performing seemingly impossible tasks of memorizing thousands of numbers, names and faces or entire order of playing cards in a deck. These people are not super-humans. They have just mastered certain techniques and habits, some of which I am about to tell you. If you read the entire post and try to follow these steps, you will definitely notice a huge improvement in your memory skills.
1. Clean up storage space
Believe it or not, your brain has a lot of similarity to data storage devices like hard drives or flash drives. Your brain also has a limited amount of storage space in its memory. Some studies concluded that the storage capacity of an average human brain is around 2.5 million Gigabytes.
Although the number seems huge, trust me it can be exhausted. You have so much information to store in your brain right from the moment you are born. You might not be able to recall all of that but most of it is there. Therefore, if you want to retain newly gained information, you need to make space for it.
Long term memory is mostly processed in your brain’s Limbic system, especially in the hippocampus. As you obtain new information, the neurons start making more and more synapses (connections). As you revise that memory, the synapses grow stronger and recalling the memory becomes easier. You need to keep your brain clean of junk in order for these processes to happen smoothly. Let’s see how you can do that.
The trick seems to be very simple but it is easier said than done. We are not computers and we don’t have a delete button. The memories are nothing but neuronal circuits which are constantly being generated and degenerated. So, if you are able to selectively degenerate the stuff you don’t need, you will make space for new information to be stored. That means you need to stop recalling the information that is of no use to you! As I mentioned earlier, only those synapses grow stronger, which you use more. So, if you stop using the unimportant synapses, they will degenerate. For instance, do you remember high school integral calculus or equations of fluid dynamics? If you are an working adult, then your answer will most probably be NO. That is because you have not recalled those memories for a very long time. However, you might remember the plot of the Avengers movies as you have seen or discussed the movies so many times with your friends. So basically you have to tune out the unnecessary data from your surroundings and avoid recalling them. You will get better at it with practice.
However, this technique will never work if you do not sleep for at least 7–9 hours at night because consolidation of memory occurs mostly during this time.
2. Use memory techniques
Memory techniques are the tools which can transform you from an average human being to a genius in no time. You can easily remember huge chunks of information if you learn to use them correctly and practice properly.
a. The Memory Palace/ The Mind Palace Technique
You must have read or heard about this technique somewhere. If you have seen the TV series Sherlock, you must have seen him use the memory palace technique. If you don’t know what it is, it is the visual memory of a place very familiar to you. You have to paint a very vivid mental picture of the place in your mind. Then you have to associate an image to every single item that you have to memorize. After that you simply place those images in specific locations of that image. When you need to recollect the information, you just have to walk through that place in your mind, look at the images and recall all the items in your desired sequence. You can get an idea about what I am saying from the image above where a memory palace is used to memorize the names of the US Presidents. Images are created which resemble the names and then placed in specific locations in the memory palace.
In this picture you can see that a living room is used as the memory palace. The furniture in the room are the designated locations where the images would be placed and the blue arrows show the direction of walking which maintains the sequence of the items. Similarly, you can use any physical location you are familiar with. It can be your apartment, your school building, your workplace or any place about which you can create a crystal clear mental image.
For creating the images, let your imagination fly. Associate images to items in a way that helps you remember them. In the image above you can see George Washington being associated with ‘Washing line’. You will get the hang of it if you practice.
The memory palace technique can work wonders and you can memorize entire grocery lists, tens of hundreds of names and faces, decks of cards, thousands of numbers and anything else you can think of.
b. The Major System
Our memory works best for visual images. So, what to do in case of numbers. We try to reiterate the mobile number till the time we finish dialing but after that we tend to forget it. That is because we cannot associate numbers to visual images. There is a solution to this problem. It is known as the major system. In this system, certain sounds are allocated to the digits 0–9. Remember, it is the sound that matters, not the alphabet.
Let’s see how to use it. First, you have to memorize the sounds thoroughly so upon hearing the sound you know which number it means. Now, if you have a large multi-digit number, let’s say the decimal digits of Pi, break the digits into groups of three. So, the digits would be 3.(141)(592)……Now, assign the sound to the numbers. 141 would be t-r-t. We can convert it to TReaT. Next is 592 which would be l-p-n, which can be remembered as aLPiNe. Now place these images in your memory palace in a proper sequence. Say, you walk into your living room and you see a packet of TReaTs by the door, then you walk to the couch and there is a miniature model of the ALPiNe mountains and so on. This technique is extremely useful if your work demands that you memorize a lot of numbers.
c. Mnemonic devices
These are one of the most handy and useful techniques for remembering a list of items. Being a medical student, I can tell you that mnemonics have been of immense help and without them very few students would be passing their exams. You can use them in your day to day requirements as well. You can arrange the items in your list in a manner which helps you create a mnemonic using the first letter or sounds from each word. Let me give you an example. In order to remember the signs and symptoms of organophosphate (pesticide) poisoning we use the mnemonic ‘DUMBBELLS’.
D- Diarrhea
U- Urination
M- Miosis (Constriction of pupils)
B- Bradycardia (Slowing of heart rate)
B- Bronchospasm (Constriction of air passage)
E- Emesis (Vomiting)
L- Lacrimation
L- Lethargy
S- Salivation
A single image of a dumbbell is associated with organophosphates in my memory and it has helped me remember all these signs and symptoms for a very long time.
Thus, it is very clear that our memory works best with visual cues. So, we have to use our imagination and practice visualizing and associating images with everything that we want to remember. Keep practicing and keep training your brain by reading books, journals, blogs or whatever you fancy.
3. Avoid stress and anxiety
Your memory powers are inversely proportional to the amount of stress or anxiety that you experience. Your recall abilities are drastically reduced in stressful situations as you all must have experienced during exams. So, it is obvious that people with low levels of stress have a better memory. I am mentioning a few things you can do to reduce stress levels. However, feel free to add any activity of your own which makes you happy and less stressed.
a. Meditation
Meditation is a great way to calm your mind and relieve stress. It has proven benefits against toxins in your body and can promote blood flow to the brain. If your mind keeps racing and jumping between thoughts, it will be very difficult for you to consolidate memory. Meditation can help. Try meditating everyday for at least fifteen to thirty minutes. You will surely get great results.
b. Exercise
I know it sounds clichéd but exercise does have multiple proven health benefits. The body and mind are more intricately connected than we can think of. Regular exercise promotes cerebral blood flow, reduces chances of cerebrovascular diseases, releases lots of endorphins and healthy hormones good for the brain and most importantly reduces stress and gives you a sense of achievement. It does not have to be heavy weight lifting all the time. Even a little bit of cardio, yoga or breathing exercises can work wonders. But you should be regular and consistent.
c.Music
Listening to classical music can have a very positive impact on your brain. Studies have shown that listening to Mozart while studying, helped people retain more information than usual. It does not necessarily have to be Mozart. Listen to the classical music of your choice. Just keep in mind that the music should be soft and soothing and not too loud so as to shift your focus from the stuff that you want to memorize.
d. Sleep
This is probably the most important point in this entire article. If you want to lead a healthy life, proper sleep is a must. Sadly, we treat sleep as a dispensable part of our life and very few of us have a proper sleep routine. But we must try to improve. If you have reached this far on this post, you must be determined to have a good memory. For that you need to sleep for at least 7–9 hours in the night. During the REM phase of your sleep the short term memories are converted to long term memory and the unimportant memories are deleted. You need to keep this process up and going everyday to have a healthy memory.
Bonus Tip: Avoid looking at digital screens for at least half an hour before going to bed.
4. Healthy diet
People claim that certain ‘Brain food’ have magical effects on your memory. Although not magical, certain food items do affect the functioning of the brain to some extent. However, the effect of diet on memory is much less significant than the factors mentioned above. That being said, let’s see what dietary modifications we should consider.
a. Avoid eating too much sugar as this has been linked to cognitive decline in the long run. It can indirectly affect the brain by means of other diseases as well.
b. Eat adequate amounts of fruits, dry fruits and cereals. They have positive effects on short term and long term memory retention.
c. Maintain proper intake of omega-3 fatty acids by taking fish oil supplements. This is important in children as it is involved in proper growth and development of the brain.
d. Maintain your lipid profile
e. Avoid alcohol as much as possible.
Basically, if we follow a properly balanced diet with proper amounts of vitamins and minerals, we are good.
If you can follow the above mentioned strategies and habits and incorporate them into your daily lifestyle, you will definitely notice an immense boost in your memory and cognitive abilities. Who knows, we might see you in the next memory championship someday.
