Do you forget the simplest things? Do you notice that you have a hard time concentrating or that others have more memory than you? Do not worry. You should bear in mind that, sometimes, states of stress or anxiety reduce our mental agility, or even an inadequate diet can give us problems.
Think of your brain as a muscle. A muscle that can be exercised and developed. Improving your memory is always possible and we are going to explain how to achieve it. Are you going to miss it?
1. Adequate nutrition
Following a proper diet is essential to have a good memory, so the ideal is to start including the following fruits, vegetables and other essential foods in your dishes:
- Plantain.
- Nuts.
- Apple.
- Salmon and trout.
- Brewer’s yeast.
- Broccoli.
- Spinach.
- Linseed.
- Wheat germ.
- Garlic.
- Onions.
- Asparagus.
- Oat.
- Lentils.
- Peppers.
- Citrus.
2. Avoid routine
A dangerous enemy for our memory is routine. Doing the same thing every day and following the same guidelines week after week makes our brain stop receiving stimuli, incentives and motivation. This monotony of stimuli causes information processing to become slower and it is more difficult for us to fix data and information.
Solution? Try to do something different every day. It’s clear that we all have to follow a routine due to our obligations, but give yourself a daily break of at least two hours.
3. Small daily mental exercises
Propose your own memory games. Count the steps in your office, at school, at the gym. When you see a license plate, try to remember it and recall it two hours later. Memorize the number of your friends or family’s cell phones. Memorize a poem or song and try to remember it the next day.
4. Focus your attention on what you’re doing
Sometimes, we do things automatically. We get up, comb our hair, have breakfast and leave the house. Where have we left the mobile? Where are the car keys? It’s normal. From now on, look at what you are doing, become aware of your “here and now” and you will see how, little by little, your memory improves.
5. When you want to remember something, visualize it
Imagine that you want to remember where you leave your house keys so that you don’t lose them when you need them. What can we do? Imagine yourself leaving them on the entrance table, visualize yourself. For example, now that you want to remember the birthday of a friend from work: Imagine the calendar sheet with that date.
Memory is more effective if it is accompanied by images.
6. Yes to memory associations
It’s very simple, in fact it’s almost a game. Memory works mostly by associations. Do you want an example? Surely it has happened to you at some point: Smelling something and immediately remembering some moment in your life, or listening to a song and immediately evoking a word, a sensation or an image from the past.
If, for example, you want to remember the next appointment with your doctor, make some association with it: Day 10 at 9 a.m. (you can think of the 10 fingers of the hand and the age of your nephew).
7. Organize information
Memory will be much more effective if we organize the data we want to remember. Let’s say you go to the supermarket and you have forgotten your shopping list. It’s something that has happened to all of us. What can we do? The first thing is to visualize your kitchen and each shelf to make a quick review of sections: dairy, fruits, legumes, cleaning, bathroom…
8. Regulates stress and negative thoughts
I’m sure you’re used to being told that “But what a bad memory you have!” or, worse, you might tell yourself. Do you know what something like this ends up achieving? That we believe it and that we surrender, that we assume our bad memory and that our forgetfulness is justified.
From today on, be aware of these three dimensions:
- Memory is like a muscle that can be developed if we do “mental exercise”.
- Worries and stress are the worst enemies of memory.
- To improve memory we need to be motivated, to be attentive to stimuli and to what we are doing at all times, but without pressure.
9. Stimulate your brain
Read books, magazines, newspapers, start writing a diary or even start studying a language. Exercising our brain daily helps us improve basic processes such as memory. It forces us to be active, and what is better, it protects us against the passage of time and possible degenerative diseases.
10. Enjoy the outdoors, release tension
It would be ideal if you gave yourself an hour of tranquility outdoors every day: Walk, walk, go out with your bike or with your pet. The outdoors clears our mind and releases tension, as we receive fantastic stimuli such as smells, sensations, sounds… All this relaxes and provides us with endless endorphins capable of relaxing us, and there is nothing better than a moment of peace to settle the memories of the day and those small everyday details.
Do we put it into practice?
Source: Better with Health
