A key focus of my blog is Health/Wellness. A key aspect of a quality life is our memory, both short-term and long-term. The older we get, our memories can slip. There are things we can do to keep our memories sharp. The following contributed post is entitled, Improving Your Memory.
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Memory is important. It aids us in our day to day life, as well as helping with more important things such as tests and exams. But, in day to day life, we tend not to give it much thought until we start to notice that it perhaps isn’t as sharp as it used to be. Forgetting things is quite common, especially in periods of stress, illness, or fatigue. Forgetting where you put your keys, or a phone number occasionally is entirely normal, and usually nothing to worry about.
But, as we get older, these slips can start to become more frequent. They can go from an annoyance to something that makes your life significantly more difficult. However, your memory, like any other part of your body, can improve with a little care and training. Here are some of the things that you can do to improve your memory, helping you to avoid both those little slips as well as greater memory issues in later life.
Practice Puzzles
Puzzles, such as word searches, crosswords and number puzzles such as sudoku, are all easy and effective ways to improve your memory, as well as keeping other areas of your mind young. Creating your own puzzles with WordMint can also be an effective way of enhancing your knowledge retention if you are struggling to learn and remember something new.
Read
Reading is perhaps one of the easiest things that you can do to exercise your brain. Try to read a variety of different topics, including fiction and non-fiction, and give things that you wouldn’t normally consider a go. Try to read a little every day.
Listen to Music
Have you ever noticed that you can remember song lyrics much easier than you’d remember anything else? This is because while we only remember about 10% of what we read, we remember far more of things that we hear. You can pick up song lyrics without even realising that you are listening to them, as the radio plays in the background. So, listening to music and singing along can give your memory a fantastic workout.
Talk to People
Another great way to boost your memory is with talking. Read something, and you might forget it. Read something and then talk about it, and you are much more likely to remember it. Have conversations with different people, about varying topics. Talk about what you’ve seen in the news, your past, things that you are interested in and other topics. Take an interest in the world around you.
Challenge Your Memory
The best way to improve any skill is to use it, and your memory is no different. Spend a few minutes every day pushing yourself to remember events in your past, going into as much detail as you can. Try to remember who you sat next to every year of school, or the names of all of your teachers. Think of all the places you’ve visited or jobs that you might have had.
Make Changes to Your Diet
Believe it or not, your diet can have a big impact on your memory. Feed your brain well with fatty fish, dark chocolate, broccoli, nuts, blueberry and turmeric.