Memory! Memory! Memory! Is it all about senior moments like forgetting a client’s name you’ve known for over 30 years or where did I leave my car keys? With all the talk about Alzheimer’s disease, it’s easy to start to begin worrying about losing our memory. But with just a little new knowledge about how the brain and memory function together, we can start to unravel the modern confusion about memory. The answer to how to understand more about your memory is as close as three good questions and a simple inexpensive nutritional supplement.

You don’t have to be a neurobiologist to understand the nuts and bolts of good memory. But asking one about your memory is a good idea. When asked by a seventy year old women who had reached the point of being unable to remember anything from one day to the next, Dr. Robert Russell, a gastroenterologist and director of Tufts Human Nutrition Research Center found the answer, in one single pill.
While her family was frantic that she might be suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, Dr Russell knew that aging causes the lining of the stomach to thin, which decreases the production of hydrochloric acid. And without sufficient hydrochloric acid, the body cannot absorb Vitamin B12 from the food we eat. The brain needs vitamin B12 and Vitamin6 to remember better! The woman’s memory started to improve immediately as she added the Vitamin B supplements to her diet.

You need to know three things about how your brain and your memory work together.

#1) Memories are formed through sensory images. The more attention you devote to them, the stronger they are. For example, add color, sound, taste, sense and imagination to things you really want to remember. You brain will thank you for it and reward your efforts by reproducing your thoughts in living color back to you when you need them.

#2) Memories are saved by getting rehearsed. Simple recitation or repetition and rehearsal gets things going into long term memory. This is especially important where the meaning of the information is involved.

#3) Memories are recalled with the help of cues. Positive moods improve recall. You’ve probably noticed that when you’re stressed or worried you can’t remember things as easily or completely. Recalling the same mood you had when you put your car keys away can improve recall. Utilizing the same five senses you used when you remembered the event will help you recall it.

The nuts and bolts of memory are simple strategies you can use to improve your memory. But keep in mind that memories do fade with time, they also recede when there is too much competition from other information and stress and we tend to forget things we don’t want to remember. hedge your bets with good health, proper exercise and a few conscious memory building techniques and you can feel reassured that your memory is getting all the attention it needs to wok in it’s best capacity everyday.

To get a genuine head start on engaging more of yourself , take your nose to heart. Yes, that’s right…your nose knows. It knows that your brain and body are one system and that the shift of your breath is part of a deeper rhythm of life. This is how your nervous system cycles. In and out. The inner world and the outer world. In and out.

It’s almost primal!

Dr Ernest Rossi, a well known Jungian encourages us to ride this rhythm spending our time in the inner world and then the outer world. The inner world and then the outer world. It even feels like a breath! He advises when your in an inward cycle breathe through your left nostril and go with nature, relax. Wonder about your problem…don’t concentrate on it. Be lazy and most of the time, the problem will solve itself.

Every ninety minutes you change breathing cycles. You change breathing from your left nostril to your right. When you’re breathing out of your left nostril your right brain is engaged and every time you breath out of your right nostril your left brain is engaged. Try it and energize your brain right now!

Press your thumb against your right nostril and breath in through your left , then switch the pressure and breath out through your right nostril. Do this three times. Then reverse for another cycle of three. Finish by taking some relaxing breaths as you rest your hands on your stomach.

While this is handy it’s only one part of engaging your brain and more of yourself. Both hemispheres of your brain, when communicating together can make problem solving as easy as 1,2,3.

Here’s an exercise of Dr Rossi’s that I used to do while swimming lengths at the community pool.

Draw in a deep relaxing breath and close your eyes. Look up to the left and imagine the letter A. The look up to the right and imagine the number 1. Look up to the left and see the letter B, up to the right and see the number 2. Keep on switching back and forth until you come to the letter Z on the left and 26 on the right. Now reverse the process. Look up to the left and imagine the number 1, up to the right and see the letter A. Go through the alphabet. You may find one side is dragging its feet. Practice helps that hemisphere into balance. After a few days the whole process takes off on it’s own flicking back and forth very fast. Your brain is exercising itself. As it balances itself, timing is improved and you’ll feel better too!

Have some fun today. Engage using your breath and feel the difference!

Let me know what you think!

Joan

Did you know that you have your own sweet spot when it comes to how efficiently your brain uses information? Good processing creates good balance and can make the difference between carrying out daily tasks with ease or stumbling your way through.

How do you become balanced? One way which has been making inroads into this discussion for the past 20 years is this: Give your brain a tune up!

Great thinkers through the ages have looked at the many aspects of human development and learning. There are many volumes of literature on the subject. But we are learning that we need to look closely at the processes that underlie human learning.

The 1981 Nobel Peace prize for Physiology and Medicine as shared by Roger W. Sperry, David H Hubel and Thorsten N. Wiesel provide major insights into how the human brain is organized and how it functions.

They found that your right brain allows you to enjoy beauty, music, and a feeling of belonging and wholeness.

Your left brain is more aggressive, gives commands, and integrates logical thought processes,using words for thinking, speaking and writing.

Most of our learning experiences are left brained oriented and activities that stimulate our right brain like creativity are often neglected and even discouraged.

Our brain’s balance and function depends on every little thing we do and how well we do it. High achievement does not just happen, nor is success generally achieved in one large step. You have a sweet spot for optimum performance and you get there by balancing your brain activity one small step at a time.

You can give your brain a tune up by introducing new activities that engage both hemispheres of your brain. You do this by thinking creatively when it comes to solving problems, reading more actively by asking yourself questions about the material you are reading, and by doing something new with your brain like learning how to dance, doing cross word puzzles, or learning ballroom dancing!

If you’re not convinced this is possible, next time you fly in an airplane, remember your pilot has studied his procedures over and over again, one small step at a time. He or she has found the sweet spot and you’re the benefactor! Give your brain a tune up by challenging it everyday to do a better and better job and you’ll find yourself flying through your day!