From Eric Barker...how to improve your memory.

This is how to improve your memory…

• Transience: Memories fade, especially as we age. It’s like being on a game show where the subject is you, and you’re still losing. But if we keep recalling the things we wish to remember, through work or in conversation with loved ones, we can retain more.
• Absent-mindedness: Forgetting where you put your keys (even when they’re in your hand). It’s usually an issue of not sufficiently paying attention in the first place. Turn off autopilot or start using physical reminders.
• Blocking: This is when your brain decides to play keep-away with names and facts. Usually it’s just a matter of waiting, but cycling through the alphabet can help as well.
• Persistence: We all have regrets, worries and memories that have the half-life of uranium. To end the carousel of angst, talk about what bothers you or, even better, write about it.
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• -----Here’s how to make your memory stronger:
  • Your Brain Is Part Of Your Body: Take care of your body to take care of your brain. Most important: get your sleep.
  • Encode: Remember the acronym, FOUR: Focus, Organize, Understand and Relate, Recruit Multiple Systems.
  • Recall: Remember the acronym, RAMS: Relaxed, Aids To Memory, Minimize Interference, Situation.
  • Normal Aging Or Alzheimer’s?: Memory worsens with age. Most problems are normal. If you are rapidly forgetting things – it just happened and it feels like it never occurred – that’s an issue. This happens to everyone occasionally but if you’re full-on Dory from “Finding Nemo”, see a doctor.

  So what’s the upside to an aging brain?

  Older brains aren’t as good at remembering details but they’re very good at recalling the gist of things. So as you get up there in years, you can actually be better at “seeing the forest for the trees.” Just like when it’s difficult to find something on your computer because there are too many files, having too many details can make getting to what’s relevant harder. Older brains can also be better at seeing commonalities between situations and discerning what’s key.

  We’re always complaining about our inability to remember things. When I think of my imperfect memory, I’m often thankful. To let things go and forget, rather than taking another ride on the Satan’s Merry Go Round of lousy memories.

  We don’t fully grasp the human mind but, as Emerson Pugh said, “If the human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn’t.” But, in a way, what our brains choose to remember can teach us a few things about what’s important in life. We remember what is distinctive, organized, and useful. We remember what we work hard at. And, perhaps most of all, we remember emotion.

  You’ve learned how to encode. You’ve learned how to recall.

  Now go do some things worth remembering.