Do you always find yourself forgetting something important that you should not? Recalling a friend’s birthday or what someone just told you some few minutes ago? Trying to remember people’s name or even a stray fact seem like a herculean task for you? News flash! You’re not alone. Everyone forgets things occasionally. But it doesn’t change the fact that memory loss is not to be taken lightly.
Although, many factors play different roles in memory loss: there’s genetics, medical conditions, age and so on. Yet, I make bold to say memory loss can still be managed. What do I mean?
This article has got some good information to help you boost your memory. Why not fasten your belt and take a ride, shall we?
One amazing thing about the human brain is that it has the ability to adapt to change even in old age. This ability is known as neuroplasticity. The natural power of this neuroplasticity can be harnessed to increase one’s cognitive abilities which in turn improves your memory at
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Before I delve more into what is needed to improve your brain, it is important to know the types of memory based on the duration the information is stored:
- Short-term memory/working memory
- Long-term memory
The duration of short-term memory seems to be between 15 and 30 seconds and the capacity of about seven items.
Short-term memory has the capacity for holding a small amount of information in mind in a readily active state for a short period of time. While the long term memory works like a multi-store memory model, and information is held indefinitely.
If you can remember something that happened more than just a few moments ago whether it occurred just hours ago or decades earlier, then the information has been stored in your long-term memory. Now that you know this, I’ll continue to where I stopped.
What can be done to improve your memory:
1. Exercise Regularly
By including physical activity in your daily routine, it increases blood flow to your whole body. This might help keep your memory sharp.
2. Eat the Food that fuels the brain
The benefits of a good and balanced diet cannot be overemphasized. The kinds of food you eat has an impact on not only your body but also specific areas like your brain. Some classes of food/supplements have been identified to help boost the brain’s alertness.
A. Oily fish-Example of oily fish includes mackerel, sardines, salmon, herring, etc.
All these fish contains the Omega-3 fatty acids. The omega-3 fatty acids in the oily fish have anti-inflammatory effects that may protect the brain against ageing and damage.
B. Antioxidant-rich berries: strawberry, blueberry, etc.
C. Nuts and seeds rich in vitamin E such as hazelnuts, sunflower seeds, almonds
D. Whole grain such as oatmeal, brown rice, whole-grain bread, etc
E. Egg is a good source of Vitamin B6, B12, and folic acid which may delay cognitive decline.
Others include Soybeans, dark chocolate (I love chocolates though, who doesn’t?😋)
3. Practice the act of writing something down
This reinforces information in your brain. Ensure you keep the notepad where you can see it several times a day. Also, set a reminder on your phone. It will surely help.
4. Practice Mindfulness
Minimize distractions and ensure you do one thing at a time.
5. Get enough sleep
Sleep helps you refresh your brain, keeps you revitalized and you are definitely more active when you sleep well. In addition, you don’t need to be stressed or worn out before you get enough sleep.
6. Play brain games
Games like scrabble, chess and so on will help you in ways you can’t possibly imagine. The list of games is endless and you can get a handful of them online.
- Make time for meditation
7. Train your brain
One of the techniques you can use is called MNEMONIC. This helps information retention or retrieval in the human memory.
Mnemonics make use of retrieval cues and imagery as tool to encode any given information. It can also come in form of acronym, rhymes, song, phrase or sentence.
It helps to remember facts and are particularly useful when the order of things is important. For example the first 20 elements in the periodic table in Chemistry, I can still remember even if I am fresh out of bed without missing one out. And that was because I learnt it with a song tune.
Conclusion
Understand your own style of learning. Most people are visual learners. That is, they remember best what they see. Others are auditory learners, remembering best what they hear; they benefit from talking out loud or using an audio recorder.
A few people are kinesthetic learners, remembering best what they experience, they benefit most from writing things down and acting them out.
Whichever you are, one thing remains unchanged: knowing your strength (how best you learn) will help your memory run at its peak efficiently.
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What do you do to improve your memory? Do share with me in the comments. Was this post helpful?
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