When you think about it carefully, memory is such an important part of what makes us human. Memory plays such an important part in civilization and society. Think about it. The action of processing that statement utilizes memory trying to gather relative data stored in your brain. Simply put, the brain encodes, stores, and retrieves information when needed. Memory is essentially at the center of everything you know. It allows you to receive, store, and more importantly, make use of use the knowledge your brain withholds. Therefore, to improve brain memory, there are many aspects that we need to focus on.
Men are proven to lose memory faster than women hence why we felt it was necessary to write this article.
The vigor and the health of the brain play a big factor in how much you can improve brain memory. Your lifestyle, your nutrition, and conscious efforts can significantly add to the health of your brain. The reason why we should focus on our brain’s health is quite simple: Men depend so much on it. Many aspects of who we are – are defined by our brain.
Men spend a significant amount of time improving their appearance but in reality, we spend not nearly enough time to improve what matters.
Memory Process In The Brain
The memory process is, to say the least complex. It is also imperfect. As nicely mentioned in this article, various processes in the brain occur when synaptic firings are triggered between our brain cells or neurons. Our brain is one powerful computer, firing electrical and chemical signals interchanging information all the time. Whether you are awake or asleep, your brain is always active in its various states. Think of memories as repeating firing patterns of that moment you had experienced. Obviously, this is a rather simplified explanation but it would make more sense as it relates to how our brain functions at its core. And while the purpose of this article is not to try to explain something as complex as memories we will briefly mention some basic and important aspects of it.
The goal of this article is to provide you with valuable information and a guide as it pertains to the use of memory. Whether you are studying for a final at school, a lawyer preparing for a trial, or a CEO practicing for a big presentation, memory is at the center. And while it may seem contradictory, we advise fully understanding the topics for the final. Or understanding the case for the trail or the topic for that big presentation. Fully understanding is different than memorizing. Although both use the memory processes in the brain. And that is the reason why we feel is important to improve brain memory.
The stages of Memory
While there is more research to be done to fully understand the power and complexities of the brain, we have a grasp of how we encode, store, and retrieve information. There are 3 main and so far known stages of memory: Sensory, Short-term, and Long-term.
Sensory Memory:
This is the first stage of memory and naturally the shortest. As the name suggests, it involves sensory information from the environment is saved for a very short period.
Short-term Memory:
Also known as active memory, is the information we are thinking about right now. In Freudian psychology, this memory would be referred to as the conscious mind.
Long-term Memory:
This stage refers to the ongoing storage of information. In Freudian psychology, long-term memory would be called the preconscious and unconscious.
If you would like to learn more about Memory then we suggest reading this article by Verywellmind.
Why Should You?
Memory is at the center of the use of the knowledge you hold. It is also at the center of many aspects of who you are as a human being. But the more practical reason why you should improve memory is that it is simply practical to have a sharp memory. Whether that reason is personal or professional, having a good and powerful memory can have significant benefits in your life.
As mentioned above, whether you are a student, a professional, a 19-year-old, or a 65-year-old man, a sharp memory will have an impact on your life. The benefit and degree of impact will, of course, depend from man to man. We have highlighted this before but it is important to understand we are all different. We are all beautifully unique and have very specific needs and focuses.
Whatever that reason and impact in your life is, the bottom line is pretty much the same: It will help you stay ahead of the curve. Your thought, reasoning, and cognitive processes will improve. Your brain will simply process information more efficiently. Whether that is inbound or outbound information.
10 Natural Ways To Improve Brain Memory
Nutrition
- Contemplate curcumin in your diet: Seen as a strong antioxidant, a few studies have shown curcumin reduces inflammation and amyloid plaques in the brain which contribute to memory loss.
- Add Some Cocoa to your diet: Another powerful antioxidant, more specifically flavonoids, that is linked to various benefits to the brain. For more information on this, click here.
- Consume less added-sugar: We’ve all heard it before. Added-sugar is linked to several health issues. The studies and research have been done and there is no counter-argument on the risks of high consumption of added sugar. In this case, it is detrimental to our short-term memory.
- A healthy dose of fish-oil supplements: Fish and fish oil supplements are rich in the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA which can potentially improve short-term memory. Especially as you get older.
- You’re probably not going to like it but… drink less alcohol: Alcohol has a neurotoxic effect on the brain. And while occasional drinking is not a problem, excessive consumption of alcohol can damage the Hippocampus. A part of the brain that is actively triggered in certain memory processes.
Mind and Body
- Give your brain the proper rest: Overall we perform better when we give our bodies the proper rest. Think of our bodies as batteries, they do drain after a long period of activity. Therefore, it needs to be recharged and only sleep can do that. More importantly, studies have consistently associated sufficient sleep with better memory performance. The research is out there.
- Start your day with a Meditation session: We have covered this again and again. We believe in the power of meditation. Especially at the start of your day. Our minds require stillness and a deep sense of our inner-selves. Meditation does not only help your body but also your brain. Some research has proposed that meditation can potentially increase gray matter in the brain and therefore improve working memory.
- Exercise more: We have covered the benefits of exercising in previous articles. However, many studies and research have also shown that it increases the release of neuroprotective proteins that improve the growth and development of neurons. Which effectively leads to improved brain health.
- Along with meditating often, practice mindfulness: We recommend heading to the direct mode section of our How Our Brain Works: Default vs Direct Mode article. Being in control of your ever wondering mind has great effects in mind rewiring and reprogramming. Or check this amazing article as well.
- Put your brain on the Stairmaster aka. continue onto the next section to go over actual exercises to improve brain memory…
5 Exercises To Improve Brain Memory
- Visualize concepts: We are visual beings by nature. When we associate visuals to concepts our brains can store and retrieve information more adequately.
- Give context to new information: Instead of trying to memorize. Apply context to the information to have a deeper understanding of it and therefore better retention.
- Say it out loud: There are two memory categories (not to be confused with memory stages): Implicit and Explicit. Implicit is very much like second nature. Therefore our brains do not recognize it as something valuable to store. Works the same way as Sensory memory. Saying things out loud will force memories to be explicit which the brain will recognize as meaningful and important to store.
- Write it down: Much like saying it out loud, writing new information down forces the brain to focus deeper on it. It allows the brain to fully encode and store the information. And because it is in our nature to not like to making mistakes and having to erase and rewrite something we take a more careful approach to what we are writing down.
- Change gears: Learning one thing at a time for a long period can be mind-numbing. It forces the brain to focus on one set of information. However, when you present your brain with 2 or 3 different unrelated topics, you are effectively changing gears in your brain. That not only keeps it more engaged but forces the brain to keep up.
Bonus Tricks To Make Learning More Effective
Warm up the brain: Just like our bodies. Our brains will not function at its peak without a proper warm-up. Drills like concentration or puzzle games are great ways to get your brain a comfortable level of activity to allow you to encode and store new information more effectively.
The spacing effect: Our brain can only process so much information at a time. A better approach is to process that information throughout an extended period instead of a short period at once. This will ensure our brains can fully and effectively retain and understand the information.
Associate new information with old information: This may come as obvious but you’ll be surprised how this memory technique is often overlooked. Associating new information with old information allows the brain to create “stronger” neuron connections for the new information as to its relating it to information it already knows. It is simply expanding its knowledge.
Let us know in the comments section below if you have any techniques/exercises you think are very useful to improve brain memory. We would love to hear them!
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