...Ever had that dreadful occasion when you have met someone and stood there racking your memory for a name, or where you put that vital piece of paper or forgot a special occasion or an unwanted gift someone gave you and you passed it on to someone else in the same circle, quite forgetting that she may have helped in choosing it for you?
We have all at some time or another met this situation which has made us feel like crawling through the floor or at least be ten thousand miles away, preferably on another continent and until the incident has been forgotten. But have you noticed how it is that other people have memories like elephants and can recall every embarrassing moment you would rather have buried? How come some of us have such good memories and others can'' remember their own names? Well memory is like using a limb, the more you use it, the more fluent and automatic the movement and you can train yourself to remember things.
Well, here are some tricks to help you remember. With practice you too can acquire that phenomenal memory which makes politicians and other public figures so attractive - they have mastered the art of remembering names, faces, figures, statistics and whatever will give the advantage, forgetting those bits of information that can be filled in later by their staff. Most of us actually have very good memories, but we do not use it efficiently. The more we practice, the better it gets. Psychologists say that the human brain has a limitless capacity for holding information which means that our brains never 'fill up." However, we only tend to remember those things that happened recently. We remember the most spectacular or striking impressions rather than those that are more ordinary. The brain selects those memories that are linked to something that has left a lasting impression. You may remember the first birthday party of your ver first child and what you did, who was there and what gifts the baby got. It was perhaps the happiest and proudest day of your life. Or the day you got engaged, or the day that someone close to you died or the events just before or after a disaster such as an accident. In other words, we use association to link things.
Remembering names and faces is often a problem. You vaguely recognise the face, but you can't for the life of you, remember the name of the person. Try this trick. Examine a face discreetly when you are introduced. Try to find an unusual feature, whether ears, hairline, forehead, eyebrows, nose, mouth, chin, complexion and then create an association between the characteristics, the face and the name in your mind. The association may be to associate the person with someone you know with the same name, or linked to his or her profession or some other object. If the person is round and tubby, think of a barrel, if the person is tall and lean, think of string beans, and then repeat the name of the person several time in conversation. Your Memory will lock it in.
You are going on a journey but are unable to remember the route you took last time. Well, next time, make a note of the major landmarks, it could be a building - a mosque to your right, big white house to the left and the diagonal turning in between, then straight on until you come to another landmark such as a sign or a large tree from where you turn right and so on. You have gone out to get a pack of cigarettes and you want to buy milk, crisps, bread, sugar or to post a letter. On your way back, you remember that you have forgotten to post the letter or buy the milk. The simple way to remember all these items for which you have made a mental list but have not written down, use the imagination because imagination plays a great part in helping us to remember things. Think of a cow. Associate cigarettes with cancer (you may not wish to buy them any more!), think of receiving a birthday card or a special letter. By imagining and thinking of these things, it will help you to remember that you have to get milk, post the letter and so on.
Another trick that every child learns from nursery is the rhyming method to help in remembering things and the sillier the rhyme or association, the better it is retained by the memory. Shoes: blue shoes stuck in glues; Trees: bees on pink trees and so on. Remember the rhyme "30 days hath September" etc. the more vivid, absurd or funny the association, the longer it will be remembered. Painful memories can get buried deep inside our psyche or brain and are more difficult to retrieve.
Symbols, colourful, positive, pleasant images enhance memory.
All humans are either part visual or part auditory or kinesthetic learners. This means that people look at pictures and make their association with them or others who hear a bar of music and can immediately identify the song that goes with it and the last group learn by imitation and practice. Memory is like a muscle, the more it is used, and the more flexible and easy it gets. So the next time, you are stuttering and stammering and racking your brains, just practice these simple tricks to improve your memory and astonish all your friends and colleagues who will be so flattered that you remembered their names, the names of their infants, their birthdays, special occasions and you didn't pass on that gift your great aunt gave you to her and your niece!
takecare all
KH
dJ_ArSH
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Whatever limits us we call fate!
Whatever we can't change we call destiny!
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