Memory loss is really not as bad as you might think. There are a lot of things you can try to slow down this process. All you need is some research, patience and perseverance.
Playing games that challenge your mind is a great way to improve memory. This would be equivalent to your exercising in order to keep the muscles in shape. By regularly challenging your brain, you will improve your memory, focus, and concentration. Popular activities with benefits to memory include word searches, logic puzzles, and crosswords.
If this applies to you, try taking a short break from your work or studies once an hour to give your brain a chance to recharge. You can just let your brain absorb more information this way.
Mnemonic Devices
If you want to form lasting memories in the brain, try thinking of mnemonic devices to help you remember things. Try mnemonic devices when you are trying to remember things, this works the same as shorthand. Correlate a word or a short phrase with something that you want to remember. This makes it easier to retrieve when you want to recall it later.
Exercise on a regular basis to preserve your memory. Exercise increases blood flow and the delivery of oxygen to all parts of your body, including the brain. Keeping your body healthy will help you keep a hold of your memory. Exercising is also a good way to avoid getting certain conditions that affect your memory, such as diabetes.
If you have trouble memorizing information, try making a mental picture of things you want to commit to memory. If you’re studying information from textbooks, charts and photographs can act as a good visual cue to aid you in storing the information into your memory. A great way to get visual aids is to actually draw up your graphs, charts and other images to help you remember.
Get books on memory from a library to learn about this complex mechanism. There are many books available that were written by psychiatrists that will give you helpful and professional tips for improving brain function and overall memory.
Losing your memory is a hard thing to cope with as you age. One thing that you can do as a preventive measure, particularly in those suffering from dementia, is use prescription medicine.
One way to significantly improve your memory is to teach others. For example, if you are forgetting a story about when you taught your grandson to swim, talk about it to more people. That will reinforce it in your mind, and make it harder to forget.
Have confidence in your abilities. The popular consensus is that the older you get, the less you ultimately remember. This is often a self-fulfilling prophecy. Making the assumption that you will eventually lose your memory can make it a reality. If you are being questioned about your memory you may be tempted to let doubt creep in and sabotage you. Just believing that your memory is still good can help it greatly.
If you find that you are having difficulty remembering information imparted to you from someone else, try putting it into your own words. It is difficult to retain ideas and words when the concepts are foreign or complicated.
Organizational tools, such as day planners or wall calendars, are an amazing way to keep on top of important items in your life. A day planner is a great place in which to jot down things you need to remember. Use your schedule not just to jot down upcoming commitments, but also to check daily to make sure you know what’s coming up. The more you remind yourself of anything you’d like to remember, the more likely you are to store it in your mind. It is less for your brain to remember and handy to have around, if you forget something.
Ensure that you get plenty of rest. If you want to strengthen your memory, you need to get adequate sleep. Not being able to concentrate will lead to trouble adding current events to your long-term memory.
Term Memory
Learn to relate important new information with existing information in your mind. This will help you expand your memorization abilities. The information your short term memory processes is more likely to transfer into a long term memory if you associate it with something you are familiar with.
It’s one of those things that happens in life. Use the tips you read here as well as other information you find on your own to come to terms with memory loss.