Most people periodically complain about their "girlish" 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 lie in wait everywhere. Sometimes the inability to remember someone's name can be quite embarrassing. Or the desire to help the child with the lessons will turn into a complete fiasco.
How to develop memory in an adult? Forgetful people ask themselves this question from time to time. And those who not only look for an answer, but also begin to implement all the recommendations in life, eventually notice an excellent result.
Causes of bad memory
With age, people's ability to memorize deteriorates, and absent-mindedness also appears. A person needs to keep too much information in his head, because of which he sometimes forgets the most obvious facts.
But it's not just that. The older a person gets, the worse his ability to reason sensibly. The causes of poor memory in adults are hidden both in age-related changes and inpoor lifestyle, stress, poor sleep and much more. There are fewer nerve cells, and along with this, it is more and more 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, is adversely affected by:
- high blood pressure;
- atherosclerosis;
- diabetes;
- fullness.
Sometimes memory impairment can be the result of developing Alzheimer's disease.
Methods to improve memory
An amazing ability can be trained, like a muscle in the body. To do this, you need to do special exercises for memory. In adults, of course, training will require some effort. After all, it is easiest to do this in childhood. Toddlers try to remember everything they see.
The load on the student's memory is already quite significant. But when a person finishes studying and starts working, his memory is no longer amenable to systematic training. Life becomes more boring and mundane. In order for memory to continue to develop, a person must receive impressions. It's good if various pleasant events happen and people try not to forget them.
The influence of tobacco
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 significantly impairs the ability to remember.
If we comparea person who trains memory and smokes at the same time, and another who does not work on the ability to remember, but he does not have a bad habit, it turns out that the first one has a better result. However, if their conditions are equalized, it turns out that tobacco still impairs memory.
Studies have shown that students who smoke perform worse on assignments than non-smokers. Although tobacco has the ability to instantly increase concentration, however, this quickly passes.
Influence of alcohol
A flexible mind cannot be maintained by drinking alcohol. After all, they also weaken the 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 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
Some medications can also interfere with memory and even cause memory lapses. These include various sedative or stimulant drugs, as well as painkillers, antihistamines, and anti-inflammatory drugs.
Main recommendations
There are rules to keep memory in working order:
- enrich blood with oxygen;
- be sure to get good sleep;
- do not abuse alcohol and tobacco;
- avoid (if possible) memory-impairing medications.
Memorization techniques from geniuses
Psychologist Carl Seashore believes that the average person only uses 10% of their memory, while 90% remains unused.
Few people know that almost all methods of memory development in adults are based on the three natural laws of memorization. It's about emotions, associations and repetition. Knowing these rules can help both in everyday life and in responsible situations.
The law of emotions says that for better memorization it is enough to get vivid impressions about a given subject. The most famous person to use this rule was Roosevelt. He always maintained an excellent concentration of attention. Everything he read he memorized almost verbatim. The secret of this method of developing memory in adults is hidden in the need to fully focus, at least for a short while, on the necessary information. It is in this case that it will be remembered better than if you think about it for a long time and get distracted.
Napoleon left behind an amazing technique. He perfectly remembered the location of each of his fighters and his last name at the review of the troops. 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 senses as possible. This makes it possible to efficientlyinfluence the development of memory in adults. Exercises that involve multiple 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 the speech, Twain repeated the entire lecture using this cheat sheet. But then another idea came to his mind - and he began to draw what he needed to remember.
Thus, the geniuses of the past were able to embody all three laws of memory.
Preparing for classes
Memory training for adults should start with the following exercises:
- 5-10 seconds keep a completely thought-free mind. This is necessary for training 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 continuous being in this state.
Developing the ability to remember
It is very important to develop not only the visual or auditory memory ability, 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 memory exercises for adults. Consider them.
- Visual memory can be trained if you try to remember the appearance of people passing by. Enougha glimpse of a person walking towards you, 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 shown there. You can try to imagine what you saw when you once again passed by the store, what kind of sign was there. At the same time, 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 song you just heard. In the street noise, try to hear snippets of phrases and fix them in your memory.
- When eating, imagine yourself as a taster who thoroughly remembers the taste of the dish. Associate each meal with something. Play the guessing game with your eyes closed.
- Spray your favorite perfume on a test strip at the perfume shop. Then try to remember their name. Practice with all the scents around you. You can start with simpler scents, then move on to more complex ones.
- Try to develop your number memory. In order to memorize the whole combination, you just need to throw away the calculator. For starters, you can simply determine the change in the store for each purchase. Calculations in the mind greatly train the memory associated with numbers. Try to determine the price for 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 inchuck before it is screwed tight enough.
- All kinds of memory are perfectly developed with the help of any kind of board games. You can speed up your thought processes with the help of chess and checkers, playing cards, dominoes. Perfectly train your memory will help solve crossword puzzles, as well as all sorts of puzzles. Origami improves rote memory. Various types of needlework, such as knitting, embroidery and drawing, improve fine motor skills and concentration on details.
Conclusion
Everyone has a memory. Some people just have a phenomenal ability to remember. Others confess that they are the owners of a "leaky" head. According to psychologists, there are very few people with bad memory. At the same time, 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.
