You can be smart, well-read and educated.human, but all this will do you no good if it has become difficult to concentrate and remember. If our brain were something like a computer, we would simply install an additional chip to update and enhance our memory. However, the human brain is much more complex than any modern machine, so it is not that simple. We will talk about how to improve memory and how to keep your mind and memory in excellent shape until a very respectable age. Human memory - both short-term and long-term - needs regular training. This is the only way to fully use memory, and with it attention, at full capacity, maintaining clarity of mind until old age. You may ask - why, when we talk about memory, do we also mention attention? Attention (or concentration) are two mental abilities that are directly related to each other. In fact, many memory complaints have nothing to do with the actual ability to remember. They appear due to the inability to properly concentrate on a task. That is why people are actively looking for a way to improve their memory.
How attention affects the ability to memorize
Let's take this case for example.You leave the supermarket, look at the parking lot – and can’t remember where you parked your car! It’s quite possible that when you parked, you simply didn’t pay attention to the details of the place where you left your car. Your brain didn’t “register” any information that would later help you remember where exactly to look for the car. The same thing happens when we can’t remember where the champagne glasses are, where we put our wallet or where our gloves went. How can we not ask ourselves how to improve our memory?! Many of our actions are performed automatically, and therefore the ability to concentrate gradually weakens. In addition, with age, the brain needs more and more time to process information. Other brain functions also decline. It becomes especially difficult to concentrate and ignore distractions. All this does not contribute to improving memory at all. So what can be done to improve brain function? How can we improve memory and attention so as not to lose working capacity for many years? Perhaps there are some special exercises? Let’s look at them in order.
How to improve the ability to concentrate?
The most reliable way to improve your memory is toimproving a person's ability to concentrate. This is what a person trying to understand how to improve their memory should focus on. There is no specific exercise for this, but we offer you a number of very useful recommendations that will certainly prove useful.
- Focus on the task. Ask additional questions to clearly understand all the details;
- Try to eliminate all distractions. The more complex the task, the more you must concentrate;
- Do not try to make several importantcases, this will increase the probability of error. When trying to do a few cases, you will need to share your attention, so you can not properly focus on each individual task.
- Use meditation. Scientific research has shown that meditation can be a good tool for teaching the human brain.
How to facilitate memorization?
After you learn it with easefocus on what's important, you can move on. If you follow the recommendations below, you won't have to ask yourself how to improve your memory over and over again. If all the recommendations at once are too difficult for you, you can implement them gradually, one by one.
- Concentrate your attention and focus (see above!) When you need to remember something;
- Repeat the information you need to remember. Go back to her several times until you are sure that you remembered finally;
- Use associations when tryingremember something. Attempts to give additional meaning to information in the future will help to facilitate recall, because your brain will have more signals to search;
- Say out loud what you want to remember. You can turn on the music at this time - it will create an associative series (for good reason we can more easily remember the lyrics of the song than the same poems, but without music!) And also add to the impact on your ears. The more sensory organs are involved in the process of memorization, the more "paths" arise that lead our memory to the necessary information. For the same reason, it is useful to write down remembered information;
- Connect new information to the fact that you are alreadyyou know, whether it's a new material that relies on previous knowledge, or simply the address of the institution that is located on the street where your acquaintances live.
- For more complex information that you need to learn and remember, apply the method of studying the basic ideas, rather than memorizing individual details.
Exercises to improve memory
You can train your memory without evennoticing this. For example, when you play word games with your children or while away an evening solving a crossword puzzle, you are also training your brain - these are all great exercises that can help improve the situation. By the way, try learning poems with your children - humanity has not yet come up with a better exercise for training memory. In addition, you can do simple exercises to improve your memory:
- Make a list (for example, listpurchases for tomorrow) and try to remember it. After about an hour, try to reproduce it. Then check with the previously written list. When you succeed, make a longer list - this will allow the greatest mental stimulation;
- Try to make all the calculations in your mind without using paper or a calculator;
- After returning home from some newplaces try from memory to map a district or a room in which you visited. Repeat this every time you visit a new place. After the sixth-seventh exercise, you will do this automatically, without even realizing it yourself.
- Learn a foreign language. This very well stimulates the brain;
- Take a great interest in cooking. During cooking, several senses are actively used - smell, touch, sight and taste - which activate different parts of the brain.
- Use your fingers more often. Get some new skill that includes fine motor skills such as knitting, painting, building a puzzle and the like.
- You can ask your relatives to help you.Make cards with numbers - from one to ten. Let them show you these cards in random order, and then you have to reproduce them. Don't smile - despite the fact that this task is at the kindergarten level, very few adults can cope with it. After there are no problems with ten cards, you can complicate the task by adding new ones. And if you involve the whole family in doing this exercise, it can become a very exciting pastime!
You can come up with a way for yourselfimprove your memory, which you will also enjoy. The main thing is to do this regularly, not occasionally. And then a clear and strong memory will remain with you until old age! We recommend reading: