Memory Skills For Keeping Yourself Healthy

Many people complain that their ability to remember things declines with age. But the onset of ‘senior moments’ is not inevitable, as is sometimes suggested.

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Being able to remember is a skill that can be improved by practice. It is perhaps more likely that the reason that memory declines with age is that we stop practising.

How Memory Works

The mechanism for memory is unknown, like much of the way the brain works. It does seem clear, however, that there are two types of memory, short-term and long-term.

Short-term memory

Generally considered to be your day-to-day memory. Also known as ‘working memory’, it is where you keep information while you are using it, and until you either discard it or transfer it to your long-term memory.

Long-term memory

Related to what you did in the past, sometimes going back years. But some of what is stored in your long-term memory may relate to more recent events. It is probably better considered a place where your brain stores information that it wants to keep.

Experts describe three types of long-term memory. 

These are:

Explicit, requiring conscious thought, which is what most of us have in mind when we talk about memory;

Implicit, relating to learnt activities that have become so natural that we no longer have to think about them; and

Autobiographical, relating to specific parts of our lives, some of which seem to be easier to remember than others.

Keeping Yourself Healthy

Perhaps the most important thing that you can do to maintain your memory is to keep yourself healthy. Nobody can operate at their best if they are feeling tired and run-down.

Areas for attention include:

Eating Well

There are certain foods that have a reputation for helping to improve brain function, but the evidence for this is mixed to say the least.

Eating a healthy and balanced diet will, however, be good for your general health and well-being, and enable you to function at your best.

Sleep

The general consensus among scientists is that adults need about seven to nine hours’ sleep each night.

Of course getting less every now and then will not hurt you, but regular and serious sleep deprivation will seriously impair your mental performance, including your ability to remember important information. Scientists also think that sleep enables our brains to process events and help to turn them into memories, which is another reason why sleep is so important for good memory.

Physical Exercise

The third aspect is getting enough exercise. Neuroscientists believe that exercise is crucial to brain health because of its effect on blood flow.

To keep your memory fit, avoid;

Alcohol, Smoking and Drug Abuse

It should probably go without saying that using chemicals that affect your mind, and this includes alcohol and nicotine as well as illegal drugs, is going to affect your memory. To keep your memory in good working order, it is as well to avoid excessive use of any such drugs.

Stress

A little stress is good for you. But severe, prolonged stress can damage both your physical and mental health.

Exposure to the cocktail of hormones generated by stress will affect your ability to think more generally, never mind to remember. The phrase ‘My mind went blank’ is associated with stressful moments for a reason.

Useful tips to improving your memory

1. Retrieval: practise remembering the information or skill.

2. Elaboration : expanding on what you know, and making connections.

3. Interleaving : working on various different subjects at the same time.

4. Generation : working out the answer as you go.

5. Reflection : review what happened.

6. Mnemonics: using tricks to trigger memory.

7. Calibration : finding out what you don't know.

Conclusion

Of course it is a good idea to improve your memory and recall, and the learning in this write up will help you to do so.

But it is as important to remember that you don’t have to remember everything in your head. 

Writing things down, for example, in  ‘To Do’ lists, will free up your mind to remember the big things, and allow your memory to prioritise the most important.

The Respectively media Hoarder NG

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