Just as it is with computers, human beings too, have their working memory, the RAM, and their storage memory, the ROM. You must have observed this fact when you repeated a phone number several times to yourself till you dial your friend – and then promptly forget the number. Your working memory kept the number for you just for those seconds but your ROM did not record it for future recall. Here are some easy to do activities to train your mind’s ROM to retain information.
Use The Story Telling Method
You’ll find that your mind remembers stuff better when you associate or connect items to one another. In the olden days, people used to remember happenings and events by creating stories around them. These stories were passed down generation after generation, which is how we know so much about ancient cultures today.
When you make up your story, create a strong mental image of the items you’re committing to memory, so that your mind connects the data to specific images to your long term memory. For example, if you need to remember to carry a set of objects on a trip, connect them together into a storyline that makes sense to you
Find Matched Items
You can perform this activity with matched pairs of cards or even with a set of shoe boxes containing several items, with two of each item. Keep 20 shoe boxes in front of you, and fill them with two each of ordinary everyday items such as mobile phones, match boxes, cigarette lighters and so on. Now move the boxes around at random till you get completely confused as to which box contains what. Now open a box at random, take a look at the item within and close it again. Open the other boxes, one after the other, at randem; when you find the duplicate of the item you saw in the first box, remove both boxes from the floor. The point here is to remember which box you opened first. Use this method to locate all the matched pairs of items and remove those boxes from the game.
Play The Blind Jigsaw Puzzle Game
Get yourself a fun jigsaw puzzle that forms a picture that you like. Jumble up the pieces, study the picture for a few minutes and put the picture away. Now try to assemble as many of the pieces as possible without referring to the picture. How far were you able to proceed? Challenge yourself not to refer to the picture again and again and force your memory to commit the image to mind. A few runs at this game and your memory will get trained to remember better.
Try Simple Quiz Games
Quizzes are a great way to build one’s memory capacity and ability to recall. You can play this game alone or in a group. Pick any topic – history, celebrities, and movies and so on. Ask each member of the group to submit a set of questions and answers to the quiz master.
If you have collected a set of 20 questions and answers on the best horror movies ever made, you’ll have to be ready to answer the questions when it’s your turn. Since you put your quiz list together, you should be able to remember at least some of the answers. Initially, you’ll rely on this fact to provide a few answers. The quiz master provides the right answer when you’re wrong; commit the right answers to memory. When you play the same game a few days later, you’ll have to remember answers from the previous game, without referring to your quiz list again.
Associate Colors To Remember Items And Tasks
This is an easy one; associate a color to an item you need to carry or buy, or a task that you need to perform. Whenever you think of that item or task, the assigned color should flash into your mind. This sort of memory association helps you to connect things together and train your mind to immediately jump to the associated element. This game will help you to remember important information and even phone numbers later on.
Walk Through Your Home Blindfolded
Yes, you know that the Victorian armoire is two feet to the left of your bed and that your bed chest is placed at the end of your bed, but it’s easy to know that when you’re able to see. Walk around your home with a clear eye and observe the location and placement of everything. Do this a couple of times till you have everything committed to memory. Now, blindfold yourself and walk around; use your recall to figure out exactly where things are and try not to bump into furniture.
Alex is a freelance writer and enjoys writing about topics related to self hypnosis, subliminal messages, nlp training, programming your brain and lot more.
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