Four Steps to a Better Memory

photo credit: Joe Mabel

It would be great to be able to actually remember all the names of the people we speak to or perhaps recall everything we have read. Unfortunately not everyone are lucky enough to have a photographic memory.

Most of us are doing good to remember about 10 to 50 percent of what we have read, heard or seen. This doesn’t necessarily mean that we must give up working to make our memory better.

We may not be able to actually make our memory good enough to be considered a photographic memory, we can certainly do some things to improve the way our memory works so we can retain more information than we usually do.

This is especially true with of us who are suffering the normal effects of aging. As we grow older, our memory naturally becomes less reliable.

Here are some ways to make your memory a little bit better. Read on and see what tricks you may be able to help out that faulty memory of yours.

Begin while young
It is good to take care of your brain early on to avert memory problems once old age arrives. Brain development starts while very young, usually before the age of three. It is during this time when your brain grows the fastest.

You can’t change what influenced your brain during that time, but at least you can help you brain stay sharp by eating the right foods and avoiding bad habits such as cigarette smoking and drinking alcohol which have been proven to hurt memory skills.

Be Commited
You need to at the very least be able to commit yourself to making your memory better. You might not know it but it is not as simple as memorizing a grocery list or practicing your skills with crossword puzzles and memory games. You must also be commited to changing the way you live as well as the food you eat.

In order to change your lifestyle and your diet it will take a lot of initiative and self-discipline. You will not be able to do it if you are not totally commited to the task.

Practice
Make use of your brain.

From things as simple as reading a book or playing a strategy game, exercising your brain will help keep those neurons awake and working. In fact, studies have shown that people who regularly play crosswords, read or generally keep their brains active are less likely become senile in their latter years.

Use it or lose it!

Visualization
A very common technique for improving memory is to visualize words as objects. The brain sees data as pictures, so it will be easier to store and faster to retrieve if information is visualized as a picture than when it is memorized as numbers or words.

For example, when you try to memorize a grocery list, you should not memorize the words. Instead, memorize the images of the items which you need to buy. By doing that, when you go to the store, it will be easier to remember the things on your list and you will be developing a better memory in the process.

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