Improve Your Memory
Use It or Lose It
There is no one key to a satisfying and meaningful life. Rather, think of happiness as a recipe with a number of ingredients. Harvard professor and AOL Wellness Life Coaches Douglas J. Mason & Michael L. Kohn, authors of 'The Memory Workbook,' share TK tips on how to create new pathways to memory.
More Happiness Advice
- Buy 'The Memory Workbook'
- Try Something New
- Live Well At Any Age
- Hormones and the Aging Process
- Ward Off Aging Disorders
Practice, Practice, Practice
Memory is improved through practice. Doing puzzles, reading or learning something new all serve to enhance your memory and your self-confidence. Simply drawing or doodling can also enhance your visual imaginary skills. Finally, find a way to teach others -- it's a way to enhance your memories. After all, isn't this why they make grandchildren.
Improve Your Memory
Use Humor
Humor goes a long way toward remembering. When it is attached to the item to be remembered -- through a joke, humorous phrase or song -- it's both entertaining and more easily recalled. It also serves to help you relax and stay positive.
Improve Your Memory
Memory Prosthetics
There are so many wireless devices these days to help you remember: cell phones, PalmPilots and even MP3 players. Utilizing these modern conveniences to guide your through your daily activities creates self-reliance, confidence and allows you plan ahead and free up space in your mind for more pressing memories.
Organize
Find a central location to place the things you use in your daily routine. Keys, wallet, purse and cell phones can all be placed in a "memory spot," such as a side table near the door. If you make lists, centralize them in one location; scattered notes instill and foster forgetfulness.
Improve Your Memory
Relax
Don't panic if you can't immediately recall something. Allow your memories the time to come to you rather than beating yourself up in the process of forcing it. Memory always works better when it's well rested and TK.
Improve Your Memory
Limit Distractions
Chaos breeds confusion. It is much more difficult to access your memory when you are surrounded by contradictory stimuli. Find a quiet place, limit distractions and let your memory work for you.
Link Memories
When you have difficulty trying to remember something, try to reconstruct the time frame associated with that memory. For example, if you want to remember what you got for your birthday last year, picture where you were, what you were wearing, how the day began and whom you were with. As you link memories, associated memories will surface.
Focus on Your Strengths
Challenge your brain by learning something new -- dancing, tai chi, a language -- but do it in a way that plays to your strengths. Many of us learn if we view the whole concept; others do better by first learning the individual parts. Think positive, stay creative and challenge yourself in new ways.
Excerpted from 'The Memory Workbook' by Douglas J. Mason & Michael L. Kohn, copyright © 2001 by Douglas J. Mason & Michael L. Kohn. Excerpted with permission from New Harbinger Publications, Inc.
