TECHNIQUES ON HOW TO IMPROVE MEMORY | MEMORY POWER

 TECHNIQUES FOR IMPROVING MEMORY

Robert Allen wrote a useful manual on improving your memory and certainly does not read like a technical manual similar to those you receive when you purchase computer hardware. 

As Robert Allen said, "If you start today and practice, practice, practice, soon your memory will be as a retentive as flypaper (though what gets stuck it will, with luck, be more useful)

Before describing specific memory improvement techniques, we'll take a quick refresher on two aspects of memory: learning and concentration. 

Each person has his own way of learning and concentrating. These two stages are prerequisites to memory building. Learning is the acquisition of data and actual skills, while concentration is the mind's ability to focus well on something with the least amount of distraction. 

Learning:

Robert Allen says that individuals learn in three ways: looking, listening, and doing. There are individuals who rely mostly on sight, others on their sense of hearing, and still others who learn by doing. Certain measurements exist to gauge one's most predominant learning style. We'll deal briefly with some of these practical tests:

For instance, after watching a movie, which part do you remember most the dialogue, the action sequences, or the things you did, like driving to the cinema, buying the movie pass, and popcorn? If you answered "dialogue", that makes you a listener, If you answered "action sequences", you are a looker, and if you answered the "things you did", that makes you a doer. 

Concentration:

You can have the best tutor for memory building, but if you can't concentrate, it would be difficult to have an efficient memory. Concentrating is a difficult art to master; look how much technology has taken over our lives. 

In the mind-training courses, he took throughout his life, Allen says there is one technique that might help some individuals develop their concentration skills. 

This one is adopted from a Far Eastern culture, he says and is a century-old practice, but is still valuable. It sounds easy enough but your initial efforts at actually doing it may seem futile: 

Light a candle and set it on a table where you can see it clearly; stare at the candle for two minutes and take in every detail: color, wax, size, the flickering of the flame, etc;

Body and mind are one. Don't kid yourself thinking that you can set about your merry way doing things you want to do and neglect your physical self. The following rules, Allen says, are things you hear repeatedly. They still have their weight in gold-old advice but good advice, so pay heed to them:

• Sufficient Sleep:

Not having enough sleep is a barrier to concentration and learning. On those days where you had insufficient rest and sleep, were you productive at work or in school? Did you remember more and retain more, or did your brain feel fuzzy?

• Balanced Meals:

The experts have stressed, over and over again, that a good, balanced meal is therapy for stressed-out and burned-out lives. Good, healthy eating is essential for our memory to function at an optimal rate. According to researchers, those who eat breakfast have heightened powers of recall than those who skip this important meal of the day. 

• Fresh air:

To benefit from fresh air, learn to breathe properly, and be concerned about the air quality in our homes and offices. This means that as much as possible, we should have a window open while working, maintaining a comfortable temperature in the room. Stale air that is not allowed to circulate properly affects our concentration and mental processing abilities. 

• Physical exercise:

Not many people appreciate aerobics or weight-lifting. If you're one of them, go for long walks or swim laps. The idea is to exercise at least 3o minutes per session most days of the week. 

Also read:

Memory in the brain 

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