Tips for Improving Your Mental Capacity
This was taken from a recent article by Jim Kwik entitled “Want to Upgrade Your Brain? Tips on How to Improve Your Mental Capacity” , published by Maria Shriver. They are excerpts from “Limitless – Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, Unlock Your Exceptional Life.” selected for The Sunday Paper by author Jim Kwik.
Some of these ideas are quite good and hopefully will be of some help to my readers who want to remain sharp.
Below are excerpts from “Limitless – Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, Unlock Your Exceptional Life.” selected for The Sunday Paper by author Jim Kwik
What is Digital Dementia and how do you avoid it?
Overuse of digital technology results in the breakdown of cognitive abilities
You work harder trying to memorize a phone number than when you rely on your cell phone to memorize it for you.
The author argues that short-term memory pathways will start to deteriorate from underuse if we overuse technology. Forcing yourself to recall information instead of relying on an outside source to supply it for you is a way of creating and strengthening a permanent memory.
Memory is the most important part of the learning process
If you could not remember, then you could not learn anything. There is no knowledge without memory.
I challenge you to do anything without utilizing your memory. Forcing yourself to recall information instead of relying on an outside source to supply it for you is a way of creating and strengthening a permanent memory.
Unlimit your memory
If you’re going to perform a major upgrade on your brain, you’re going to want to unlimit your memory, as memory is such a fundamental part of most brain function. Since that’s the case, let me reassure you with a very important fact: There’s no such thing as a good memory or a bad memory; there is only a trained memory and an untrained memory.
Train Your Memory
Suggested tools and techniques designed to train your memory:
You will be applying basic principles of the mind and developing your memory in such a way that will make learning (remembering) more natural, easy, and fun. The most fundamental of these, though, is this: always remember MOM, a mnemonic device I created to kick up your memory instantly:
M is for Motivation
The simple fact is that we are considerably more likely to remember things that we are motivated to remember.
If someone says to you, “Hey, remember our call tomorrow,” you may or may not remember that you’ve scheduled a call with that person. If instead he says, “Hey, if you remember our call tomorrow, I’ll give you $5,000,” you will definitely remember that you’ve scheduled the call. You are overwhelmingly more likely to remember something when you have a strong motivation to do so. So, if you want to train yourself to have a stronger memory, give yourself a stronger motivation to do so.
O is for Observation
How often do you forget someone’s name as soon as you hear it? The reason is likely that you weren’t entirely paying attention when you heard that name. Maybe you were looking around the room to see who else you knew. Maybe you were still thinking about a conversation you’d just had. For whatever reason, you weren’t entirely present. Most of the time, when we fail to remember something, the issue isn’t retention but rather attention. If you’re serious about boosting your memory, condition yourself to be truly present in any situation where you want to remember something.
M is for Methods
I’m going to provide you with a set of tools that you’ll be able to use when you want to remember something. Make sure you’re always carrying these around in your mental toolkit, and be sure to employ them to the point where they become second nature.
To remember any new piece of information, you must associate it with something you already know
One of the keys to memory and all of learning: In order to learn any new piece of information, it must be associated with something you already know. Think of a cherry, for example. You remember that it’s red, sweet, fruit, pie, round seeds, etc .These are words and pictures that you have learned to link to a cherry. Your mind is constantly making countless associations every minute, most of them without your conscious awareness. This is how you learn.
Adding emotion makes something memorable
Information by itself is forgettable, but information combined with emotion becomes a long-term memory. When we add emotions to something, we make it adventurous, we make it action-filled, we make it humorous, and we’re much more likely to remember it.
I hope you have enjoyed this little writeup and that some of the ideas expressed here will be useful to you in your quest for an increasingly sharper mind.
Other brain games can be found under the heading “See Our Blogs”, by clicking any of the published blogs on the pages for the following categories:
“Brain Games For Children”
“Brain Games For Adults”
“Brain Games For Seniors”
“Advanced Brain Training”
“Optimal Brain Health”