Useful tips
Contents:
Draw maps of the area
Test yourself regularly
Decide simple math problems
Test your sense of taste
Tell stories
Keep learning
Engage in a new sport activity
Improve your fine motor skills
Memorize phone numbers
Come up with mnemonic phrases
Start learning a foreign language
Develop your ability to quickly absorb information
Repeat information out loud
Don't waste your mental power
Use visual cues
Poor memory is the scourge of many people who live at an unprecedented pace, given the speed of development of modern technologies, the huge information flow, and the high level of stress.
The tips you will receive in this article will not only help improve memory, but also delay the onset of dementia, prevent negative cognitive changes, and improve thinking abilities.
1. Draw maps of the area
Dean Drobot
Brain scientists say that attempts to restore a memory card seriously stimulate brain activity. Take taxi drivers in London, for example. In order to obtain a private transportation license, they are required to remember 25,000 streets and more than 20,000 local identification points (museums, monuments, shopping centers, etc.).
However, the ability to memorize streets and navigate the terrain is not the only difference between London taxi drivers. Neuropathologists at the University of London have found that these same taxi drivers have the size of the hippocampus (part of the brain system involved in the transition of so-called short-term memory to long-term memory ) significantly exceed the size of the average person's hippocampus.
The following brain exercise is suggested:
draw a map of anything — the surrounding area, your neighborhood, or any other area you know — solely from memory. Make it a rule to do this exercise again and again when you visit a new place or simply take new routes to familiar places.
2. Test yourself regularly
Forget all those clever and alluring mind games on your phone and computer that supposedly affect brain activity! According to experts, humanity has not yet come up with anything better than pen and paper to return to old and proven methods of improving our memory.
The following brain exercise is suggested:
make an offhand list of products that are sold at your grocery store; write a list of tasks that you need to solve in the next week or two; make any other a memory list with more than ten items. Set it aside for two hours.
Then try to remember as many items from this list as you can. The longer the list, the more items it contains (and the more complex and tricky these items are), the harder and harder our brain works to remember the list we made of all Just a few hours ago.
3. Solve simple math problems
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When did you say goodbye to math? After high school? Or university? It makes sense to say “hello” to the Queen of Sciences again. Brain scientists unanimously say that solving even the simplest math problems of addition and subtraction every day definitely prevents negative ones cognitive changes in the brain.
The following brain exercise is suggested:
solve the simplest mathematical examples from the arsenal of elementary mathematics every morning. Do this in your mind without using a pencil or paper or (God forbid) a calculator. To make things more difficult, try to solve these examples while, say, you're making breakfast or taking a shower.
4. Test your taste
Don't be surprised — it's very useful. When you cook, you're doing double benefits to your brain. Cooking, as well as absorbing it, activates areas of the brain that are associated with smell, vision, taste and tactile sensations.
Read also: Test: What type of memory do you have?
In addition, by using your senses, you also train your ability to remember various information (about smell, color, taste, etc.). By the way, scientists have repeatedly conducted studies in which subjects were better able to remember several pictures if the demonstration of each of them was associated with a specific aroma.
The following brain exercise is suggested:
every time you chew something, take a moment to try to taste all the ingredients of a dish; try to identify even the faintest and most subtle aroma, and the taste of seasonings and spices. This exercise will certainly not cause difficulties and will give many people a lot of pleasure (and even benefit the brain).
5. Tell stories
It would seem that what could be so difficult about telling stories? In fact, the ability to build a coherent narrative has a powerful stimulating effect on the brain, as it requires us to focus on various important details.
Kseniia Perminova
At the same time, our emotions correlate with our memories, making us remember not only the most important and memorable moments in life, but also events that we have long forgotten about. Each time you “poke around” in the depths of your memory, you will extract from there events and moments that you have long forgotten to think about. To extract and to be amazed. This method has been successfully used as a therapy for patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
The following brain exercise is suggested:
Every time you're about to go to bed for a sweet night's sleep, replay all the moments of the day in your brain. Try to remember every little thing, every detail, from the moment you woke up in the morning to this very moment when you were in bed.
6. Keep learning
It doesn't matter how old you are at all. Routine, daily repetition of familiar actions in the style of “Groundhog Day” has an extremely negative effect on brain activity. If you like, the same simple routine activities, repeated day in and day out, dull a person.
That's why you should keep learning — no matter how old you are! Learning something new that happens every day is no longer a routine activity; this mode makes our brain work, trains us, and sharpens our minds. It has long been proven that if a person continues to learn something throughout his life, it gives him the opportunity to maintain an excellent memory and prevents the brain from aging early.
The following brain exercise is suggested:
even if you have two or more higher educations, take the time to sign up for some courses. It is absolutely not necessary to learn a new specialty (although this is a very effective way to prevent brain aging). For example, you can sign up for cooking classes — the main thing is that you learn something new. Believe me, your brain will only benefit from this.
7. Take up a new type of sports activity
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This advice is similar to the previous one, but only partially. A new type of sports activity is not only a challenge for the brain, which will have to make some effort to master it. The new sport is a challenge for our heart, which, for a second, pumps blood to our brain.
Any sporting activity, be it barbell or dumbbell exercises, yoga, table tennis, golf or swimming, does not just stimulate our body's activity and, accordingly, brain. New sports are directly related to improving the functionality of the brain, with the influx of new energy necessary to maintain mental acuity and excellent memory.
The following brain exercise is suggested:
sign up for a section where people engage in a type of sporting activity that will be new to you. No one is telling you to aim for championship titles; however, try to learn all the rules and nuances of this sport in the smallest detail. Of course, you can do some kind of sports activity on your own. It's important that you get serious about learning this new activity for your body and brain.
8. Improve your fine motor skills
For some reason, many people believe that fine motor skills are only important in childhood. It is true that learning fine motor skills is extremely important for a child, but as we age, we lose the opportunities that were once common for each of us.
Continuous maintenance (and improvement) of fine motor skills is essential for hand-eye coordination, which, in turn, contributes to improved healthy motor skills brain activity. The above two tips may well help improve fine motor skills, although, in the end, a lot depends on the particular activity.
The following brain exercise is suggested:
There is nothing better for improving your fine motor skills than some new activity that you will enjoy. What could be better than a hobby? If you don't have a hobby, you should come up with one — given the variety of opportunities today, this is not difficult.
Robert Kneschke
For example, you can knit, collect complex puzzles (so-called 3D puzzles are especially effective); wood burning, working with a jigsaw, and other activities are perfect for men. It doesn't matter what the activity is. It is important that your hands and fingers work.
Drawing is a very useful activity, which, by the way, many people come to in old age. By the way, the Americans conducted an interesting study that found that chewing gum while you are doing a job that improves fine motor skills is better concentrate (link to the study is at the end of the article). So chew gum and go about your hobby!
9. Remember phone numbers
You've probably noticed that even a little effort to remember numbers makes us concentrate, stimulating our brain. Such short brain exercises are also important for improving our memory.
According to experts who have explored our brain inside and out (although it is still a great mystery!) , such simple exercises aimed at trying to remember something difficult (even the same mobile phone number of someone close or friend) have a beneficial effect on the brain (up to its individual cells, improving connections between them).
The following brain exercise is suggested:
Some people may think that it's a waste of time remembering phone numbers when you can get a mobile phone and quickly find the number you need. But try to gradually memorize the numbers of your loved ones, then friends (surprise them when you have the opportunity, they will be pleased that you remember their number by heart). To make it easier to remember, experts recommend dividing, for example, a nine- or ten-digit number into three parts. Agree, for example, that 876 501 7906 is much easier to remember than 8765017906.
10. Make up mnemonic phrases
Mnemonic phrases are phrases that help us remember (or remember) important information. In fact, there are a whole range of techniques that help our brain remember something by building associative connections.
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A great way to develop memory, which, by the way, can be an exciting activity (no less exciting than, say, solving a crossword puzzle), is to compose meaningful words or even phrases from the initial letters of information you need to remember. However, an example is needed to explain this technique, which is very useful for the brain.
The following brain exercise is suggested:
this is a fairly difficult but very effective exercise. For example, you plan to stop by the supermarket on your way home to buy a certain list of products. Surely you have come across a situation where you only found at home that you forgot to buy something.
Of course, you can make a list of products in advance. But our task is to make the brain work and hone our memory. The following option is offered: you want to buy fish, ginger, napkins, sauce, bread, milk, eggs, oatmeal. Make words from the first letters of the products: MEAT (milk, eggs, sauce, oatmeal) and RICE (fish, ginger, napkins). Try it, you'll love it!
11. Start learning a foreign language
It is possible that you will never go abroad, you will not want to watch foreign movies or read foreign literature in the original language. But even in this case, it makes sense to start learning a foreign language, because numerous studies have repeatedly demonstrated the link between proficiency in several languages and high brain functionality.
The reason is that language learning is a complex task that will take a long period of time. But these are the most effective tasks when it comes to stopping brain aging. You don't have to be afraid of negative cognitive changes if you start regularly memorizing words in a new language, listening to them, and trying to reproduce them in your speech.
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The following brain exercise is suggested:
This activity is not for a short period, so it can take a lot of time. No one is forcing you to sign up for a foreign language course (although this is also possible, because the good goal is to improve your memory and stop brain aging). In fact, there are a lot of online resources that offer you to learn a particular language in a time mode that is convenient for you.
12. Develop your ability to quickly absorb information
Do you grasp on the fly, or do you often need, excuse me to be sharp, for someone to chew the information first and then put it on a plate? If you choose the latter, it means your brain may face problems in the foreseeable future.
The fact is that developing skills to quickly absorb information can significantly reduce the risk of dementia. This fact was confirmed in a special study by Japanese scientists (a link to this study is provided at the end of the article).
The following brain exercise is suggested:
in order to learn how to quickly assimilate the information received, you must first learn how to process it as soon as possible. There are quite a few exercises and techniques that you can find and learn on your own.
However, you can use a simple method of learning information, which consists of five steps:
– review the information you need to learn (let's say this is an important document);
– formulate for yourself a number of questions that would relate to the key points of this document);
– give answers to the questions posed;
– reread the document more carefully;
– study the answers that were given by comparing the information obtained as a result of a cursory study with the information obtained as a result of a careful reading of the document.
Initially, this approach takes a lot of time. However, regular classes, which will be conducted independently in this vein, are sure to bear fruit — you will automatically begin to formulate questions, answer them, and learn them in this way so the material is much faster than before.
13. Repeat the information out loud
Pressmaster
Surely each of us knows that the chances of remembering information increase if we say this information out loud. This is the basis for numerous educational methods that have been, are and will always be used in educational institutions (especially in primary education).
Moreover, two years ago, French scientists recently published their research results, according to which information read aloud is 15 percent better absorbed than the same information that people read about themselves. It was also found that reading aloud the information you need to remember can improve memory in principle (a link to the relevant study is provided at the end of the article).
The following brain exercise is suggested:
every time, in order to remember something heard, seen or read, it is recommended to say the information received out loud. Use this tactic for literally everything: phone numbers, the names and surnames of new acquaintances, the weather forecast you just heard or the exchange rate – in general, train your brain every time it's possible.
14. Don't waste your mental power
A good memory is a wonderful thing. But a great memory is primarily a tool, not a reason for entertainment. A tool that should be used when, sorry for the tautology, it is necessary! Therefore, wasting your vitality and mental energy on small things that are not of paramount importance is not only pointless, but also harmful to memory.
Read also: Our brain is dying: these 10 tips guarantee its long life
For example, instead of wasting valuable brain resources trying to remember where you put your keys every time, it makes sense to always put them in the same place. It is useful to keep a diary where you will write down the dates and times of trips to the hairdresser, to the doctor, and some other appointments on duty.
The following brain exercise is suggested:
Actually, this is not even an exercise, but the simplest advice — if you have a lot of “small” information that doesn't make sense to keep in mind all the time, start a diary. This notebook was invented not for forgetful people, but for those who value their time and are not ready to waste it on trifles.
15. Use visual cues
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This is the last tip in this list of useful tips to stimulate brain function and improve memory. However, this is not the last tip you can find and use to help your brain. It consists in the following: use visual cues for your brain.
The following brain exercise is suggested:
relying on good memory is great, but it doesn't hurt if you periodically post notes on your desktop, keyboard, refrigerator, or anywhere else papers (stickers) that will serve as a reminder of various daily activities.
Also use your mobile phone alarm clock, leaving reminders not only when you should do something, but also what you need to do. We remind you that the information you have written down yourself is better remembered (by the way, this is another of the mnemonic techniques for improving memory).