Most people periodically complain about their "girl" memory. As a rule, they practically do not part with diaries in which they carefully enter all their plans for the next day. However, difficulties lurk everywhere. Sometimes the inability to remember someone's name can put in a rather awkward situation. Or the desire to help the child with the lessons will turn into a complete fiasco.
How to develop memory in an adult? Such a question is periodically asked by forgetful people. And those who are not only looking for an answer, but also begin to put all the recommendations into practice, eventually notice a wonderful result.
Causes of Bad Memory
With age, the ability to remember worsens, and confusion also appears. A person needs to keep too much information to his head, because of which he sometimes forgets the most obvious facts.
But it's not only that. The older a person becomes, the worse his ability to reason sensibly. The causes of poor memory in adults are hidden both in age-related changes, and in the wrong lifestyle, stress, poor sleep and much more. There are fewer nerve cells, and along with this, it is becoming increasingly difficult for a person to delve into something new.
Poor memory in an adult may be the result of certain diseases. It is noted that the ability to remember, as well as thinking, adversely affect:
- high pressure;
- atherosclerosis;
- diabetes;
- fullness.
Sometimes, memory loss may be a consequence of developing Alzheimer's disease.
Memory Improvement Techniques
An amazing ability can be trained, such as the muscle of the body. To do this, you need to do special exercises for memory. In adults, of course, training will require some effort. After all, the easiest way to do this is in childhood. Kids are trying to remember everything that catches their eye.
The load on the student’s memory is already quite substantial. But when a person finishes learning and begins to work, his memory is no longer amenable to systematic training. Life becomes more boring and mundane. In order for the memory to continue to develop, a person must receive impressions. It is good if various pleasant events take place, and people try not to forget them.
Tobacco effect
How to develop memory in an adult? First of all, he needs to get rid of the harmful effects of nicotine. Numerous studies have confirmed that tobacco sufficiently affects the ability to remember.
If we compare a person who trains memory and at the same time smokes, and another who does not work on the ability to remember, but also has no bad habit, then it turns out that the first has a better result. However, if their conditions are equalized, it turns out that tobacco still impairs memory.
Studies have shown that smoking students do less well than non-smokers. Although tobacco tends to instantly increase attention span, however, it passes quickly.
Effect of alcohol
A flexible mind cannot be maintained by drinking alcohol. After all, they also weaken memory.
Even a small dose of alcohol reduces the ability to remember. Its systematic reception deprives a person of the opportunity to fix something in his memory. Therefore, those people who are thinking about how to develop memory in an adult should give up alcohol.
It is recommended to exclude all types of alcohol before a responsible event, where you need to remember something.
Medications
Taking certain medications can also affect memorization and even cause memory lows. These include various soothing or stimulant drugs, as well as painkillers, antihistamines and anti-inflammatory drugs.
Key recommendations
There are rules that allow memory to always remain operational:
- enrich blood with oxygen;
- be sure to get enough sleep;
- do not abuse alcohol and tobacco;
- refuse (if possible) from drugs that reduce memory.
Methods of remembering from geniuses
Psychologist Carl Sishor believes that an ordinary person uses his memory only by 10%, while 90% are left without use.
Few people know that almost all methods of developing memory in adults are based on three natural laws of memorization. It is about emotions, associations and repetitions. Knowing these rules can help both in everyday life and in critical situations.
The law of emotions says that for better memorization it is enough to get vivid impressions of a given subject. The most famous person to use this rule was Roosevelt. He always maintained an excellent concentration of attention. Everything he read was memorized almost verbatim. The secret of this technique for the development of memory in adults lies in the need to fully concentrate, at least for a short time, on the necessary information. It is in this case that she will be remembered better than if you think about it for a long time and be distracted.
An amazing technique was left by Napoleon. He perfectly remembered the location of each of his fighters and his surname at the troop review. The secret to remembering a person’s name was to get a more vivid impression of him. For example, asking how his last name is spelled.
President Lincoln had his own memorization technique: he read aloud what was important to remember. It turns out that you need to use as many sense organs as possible. This allows you to effectively influence the development of memory in adults. Exercises, which are based on the use of several senses, are recommended by most psychologists. For example, to remember, it is enough to write down, and then mentally imagine what was written.
Mark Twain often lectured. To remember a long text, he wrote down a couple of words from the beginning of each paragraph. Before speaking, Twain repeated the entire lecture using this cheat sheet. But then another idea occurred to him - and he began to draw what he needed to remember.
Thus, the geniuses of the past were able to realize all three laws of memorization.
Class preparation
Adult memory training should begin with the following exercises:
- For 5-10 seconds, keep your mind completely free of thoughts. This is necessary to train concentration.
- During this process, there should not be any tension: nervous or mental.
- From five seconds, it is very important to gradually reach thirty seconds of continuously being in this state.
The development of the ability to remember
It is very important to develop not only the visual or auditory ability of memorization, but also other types. You also need to remember that short-term and long-term memory are equally necessary for a person.
The following are recommended exercises for memory in adults. Consider them.
- Visual memory can be trained if you try to remember the appearance of people passing by. A glimpse of a person walking towards is enough, and then you need to try to imagine his appearance in all details.
- It is very useful to ask yourself from time to time what the wrapper of your favorite candy looks like, what is depicted there. You can try to imagine what you saw when you once again passed by the store, what was the sign there. In this case, you need to try to remember everything to the smallest detail.
- In order to improve sound memory, it is enough to regularly read aloud or learn poems with a child. Sing the melody you just listened to. In street noise, try to hear snatches of phrases and capture them in your memory.
- When eating, imagine yourself a taster who thoroughly remembers the taste of the dish. Associate each meal with something. Play guessing dishes with your eyes closed.
- In the perfume shop, spray your favorite perfume on a test strip. Then try to remember their name. Practice with all the smells around you. You can start with simpler scents, then move on to more complex ones.
- Try to develop numerical memory. In order to remember the whole combination, you just need to throw away the calculator. To get started, you can simply determine the change in the store with each purchase. Calculations in the mind really train the memory associated with numbers. Try to determine the price of each product. Count your steps, for example, from the entrance to the apartment to the elevator door. You can try to remember how many times you have to scroll the lamp in the cartridge before it is twisted tight enough.
- All types of memory are perfectly developed using any type of board game. You can speed up thought processes with the help of chess and checkers, playing cards, dominoes. Crossword puzzles, as well as all kinds of puzzles, will help to train memory well. Origami improves mechanical memory. Various types of needlework, such as knitting, embroidery and drawing, improve fine motor skills and concentration on details.
Conclusion
Everyone has memory. Some people have just a phenomenal ability to remember. Others admit that they are the owners of a "leaky" head. According to psychologists, there are very few people with poor memory. Moreover, there are a lot of those who do not know how to use it correctly or do not know how to develop memory in an adult.