How often do we forget the names of people right after they are called? Along the way, we forget phone numbers, passwords, shopping lists and much more. We are not sure of our memory, but only hope that "it will not let you down." However, there are ways that will help to get this confidence and stop getting into embarrassing situations.
Memory is necessary for us every day: public speaking, studying, scientific research and simply daily affairs.
Do you believe that an excellent memory is not an innate ability, but a skill that can be developed? The way it is.
With some effort, you can become a real memory expert. You have the opportunity to remember absolutely everything.
Image source
Why are there problems with memory?
One of the leading experts on memorization, journalist Joshua Foer, just after a year of training became the national champion of memorization. Joshua believes that in the modern world the problem of memory is becoming more urgent.
High technology (gadgets and software) make the world easier, but they also change us. They change people not only culturally, but also cognitively. When we need at least something to remember, it seems that we have forgotten how to do it.
The application and tools are very convenient - they help to keep with you and quickly find all the information, but at the same time the ability to remember is transformed from a habitual mental effort into something alien and unnecessary.
There are several proven ways to help improve memory and stop forgetting simple things.
Construct the "Palace of Memory".
"Memory Palace" is a special technique, which is also known as "mental mapping" or "association".
Visualize the most familiar or familiar places in your life: your home or workplace. Find five large elements in these rooms and they will become for you a kind of "files" for storing memories. For example, you have chosen your office and mark for yourself five places:
- Office door
- Chair
- Table
- Bookcase
- Bin
Let's say you need to remember five countries, and you create associations with your "files":
- USA - your door is painted in stars and stripes.
- Australia - on a chair sits, shaking his paws, a kangaroo.
- China - on the table is a plate of rice and chopsticks.
- Armenia - a good cognac appeared in the closet.
- Belarus - there is a bucket of potatoes instead of a trash can.
The main thing is to brightly present these images and come up with something that will be simple and easy to remember. When you need to remember five countries, you will mentally travel through your "memory palace" and with the help of images remember everything that is needed.
It is proved that strange or obscene images are remembered better, so do not hesitate to invent something special - no one but you will hear it.
How to remember lists?
Lists can also be memorized by the association method. To do this, you can think up rhymes for each digit and associate list positions with it. You create a kind of "pegs" to which you can attach your memories.
- wedge
- firewood
- betting
- wider
- mother
- revenge
Let's say you need to remember the shopping list:
- Bananas. You represent a wedge of flying bananas.
- Toothpaste - tubes of toothpaste, folded into a woodpile.
- Washing powder - in advertising, they conclude a bet, whether a dirty thing is washed.
The method of associations works fine, the main thing is to firmly link your "pegs" to the items on the list and choose good rhymes for numbers.
What about the text that you need to remember verbatim?
It is proved that it is best to memorize the text not on paper, periodically peering at it, but only on the first letters of the text.
For example, take the text of Martin Luther King.
I have a dream that four of my children will once live in a country where they will be judged not by the color of their skin, but by their nature.
We write out from the quote the first letters of the words: We are clever, chchmdbozhvs, gibsnpcik, apich. After that, you can start learning by looking at the cheat sheet from the first letters. Instead of rereading the text for the hundredth time, you will remember it. The more practice, the better your memory works.
Image source
Other methods
Psychology has long been studying the memory of mood. This is the way in which you have to experience the same feelings for remembering something and regain the same mood that was at the moment of the event.
Another way is a linking system based on associations. For example, you need to remember several objects that are not related to each other, in a certain sequence: dog, cake, house, rain. You represent the consistent links of each object: the dog eats the cake, the cake fills the house, the rain from the houses.
Use these or other methods to memorize, and you can become a true Master of Memory.
In the world there is a competition for memory, and to become a Grand Master of Memory, you need to remember about 10 packs of cards in one hour, 100 random numbers and a sequence of cards in one deck in two minutes.
People who become masters do not have any inborn super abilities. They simply trained their memory and applied all the same methods described above: associations, visualizations and reminders.
In any case, if you want to develop your memory, you need to train it more often and try to exclude programs and gadgets for a reminder.
