How to Improve Memory and Boost Your Brain Power
Having a strong memory will be beneficial for many things. You can even make playing games more fun: for example, in card games at a site like a casino Verde, it will be much easier to use some tactics. If you think you don’t have a strong memory, it’s up to you to change it: memory is something you can develop and strengthen like everything else in your body and even following some simple tips may be enough for that. Below, we talk about how you can have a stronger memory.
The Basics: Your Goal Is Not to Expand but to Organize
Visualization is something often used in memory enhancement techniques. This includes defining memory too: you can think of it as a large storage area. Everything you see, hear, and experience is placed in this space. The problem here isn’t the size of the storage: every person has roughly the same size. The problem is the storage capability. In other words, being able to easily find the places where you put what you see and hear. Therefore, when you think of improving memory, you should not think of getting a “larger storage area”. These techniques try to teach you how to organize and use your available space more efficiently. There are multiple techniques you can use for this purpose.
Imagination – Visualisation
As a general rule, we remember visual information more easily. For example, you may not remember the name of a street you visited recently, but you can easily visualize a store on that street. This is why we remember the faces of people we meet more easily than their names. Therefore, visualizing the information you want to remember with imagination/visualization techniques will ensure that you do not forget them easily. You can do this in different ways:
- If you want to remember something someone told you, visualize the story being told. This technique is also used in primary schools to ensure that the information taught is part of a story – that’s why there are characters talking to each other in almost every textbook. Because in this way, children can create a visual story in their minds. Do the same and try to visualize the subject explained.
- You can also do this while reading text. Try to visualize what is being described in a sentence. You can do this for any text. Let’s say you are reading a history book and it is about the Ancient Roman period: as you read the text, try to visualize that period in your mind. The better you are at combining the information you have acquired with visual images, the easier it will be for you to remember them.
Use Mnemonic Techniques
We’re almost certain you’ve heard of this technique or seen it used. However, most people still do not realize how effective it can be. Mnemonic techniques allow you to use concepts you already know to remember new concepts. They are especially used for information that needs to be committed to memory, but it is possible to remember almost everything with these methods.
To give a very simple example, let’s say you are trying to remember the Spanish word “gato” (cat). For someone who only speaks English, this can be quite difficult, as “gato” and “gate” are quite similar but mean completely different things. However, to remember the true meaning of the word gato, you can also do this:
- Start by imagining a gate (a concept you already know)
- Imagine there is a cat sitting on this gate (a new concept you are trying to learn)
That’s all: in the future, you will be able to remember much more easily that the word “gato” means cat. The simplest known example of mnemonic techniques is the song “A-B-C”, which is sung to learn the alphabet. This song helps keep the letter sequences in mind with its flowing rhythm.
Pay Attention to Sleeping and Healthy Eating
The relationship between sleep and memory has been proven in dozens of different scientific studies. No one knows for sure why, but if your sleep patterns are disrupted, your long-term memory won’t work properly. In other words, you cannot store any information for a long time. Therefore, make sure you have a healthy sleep pattern. This goes for healthy eating, too: certain foods have long been known to enhance memory. Try to make walnuts, lemons, carrots, dairy products, pomegranates, fish, eggs, and whole grains part of your diet.
What all these techniques have in common is to associate what you want to remember with something you already know well. You can also develop your own techniques with a little creativity: combine the first letter of the name of someone you just met with a tool that starts with the same letter you use often at home, and you will find that you have no trouble remembering that name even months later.