Why Brain Training Is So Important
If you want to improve your memory, there’s good news and bad news as the old saying goes. First the good news. There are hundreds of memory improvement games, courses, and audio tapes out there. But here’s the bad news …
Memory Improvement And Your Brain
The bad news is this. Almost every CD, ebook, or audio tape teaches you theory, but fails to teach you how to consistently put the theory into practice. Let’s use a practical example.
Suppose you wanted to be a great guitar player. You could read a magazine about playing guitar, or perhaps go to an Eric Clapton concert. But what it would really take to be a great guitar player is practicing a certain set of defined skills and making them a part of your everyday life.
To improve your memory, you have to understand how it works first. It is not a part of your brain, it is the end result of many factors. Memory is having great attentive skills. It’s also about being able to visualize, like remembering where to turn when you’re driving. And memory skills require being able to think quickly, like remembering a person’s name.
And so, since the power of memory is actually determined by several brain functions, it makes perfect sense to improve your skills by improving your overall brain function.
How Your Brain Can Be Trained
As you might imagine, your brain is exceptionally powerful. It has great capacity, but much like a muscle, if it is not challenged, it won’t perform when needed.
In order to train your brain, first you should examine how you learn. Humans learn by engaging all five senses. Think about it. At some point in your life, you’ve learned by seeing, hearing, touching, smell, and tasting. That is not only how you learn, it’s also how you remember.
By engaging all your senses in the learning process, you engage your entire brain. In essence, you give it a workout and it performs better. You can see where we’re going here. The end result of highly engaged brain capacity is a better memory.
Your brain can be trained by using techniques which engage all the senses at one point or another. It is not about memorizing a deck of cards, for example. These techniques are more about a comprehensive, thorough training of your brain to work at its fullest capacity. The only way to do this is by practice.
Summary
Training your brain to use it’s fullest potential is the best memory improvement technique, because memory skills stem from all your senses. Just using one sense, for example, your sense of hearing by listening to a memory tutorial CD, is not enough.
Bottom line, there are hundreds of memory improvement techniques on the market. Be cautious of any that merely ask you to use one of your senses and expect results.
Ways To Improve Memory: Take Care Of Your Brain
If you’re suffering from memory loss or just want to have a better memory, one of the most important things you can do is take care of your brain.
Sounds trite, perhaps. But your brain is just like any other body part. It needs to be nourished, taken care of, and challenged to reach its peak potential.
One very underrated and not often discussed way to improve memory is to examine your personal habits and change them if necessary.
For one, are you getting enough sleep? Lack of sleep is a major cause of lowered brain function and hence, memory loss. We can’t assign a specific number of hours you need to sleep – only you can determine how much you need. But it’s well worth examining on your sleep habits to determine if a change is in order.
Further, just as good nutrition plays a key role in physical health, the same is true for brain function and memory. One of the ways to improve memory is to make sure you’re eating a balanced diet. Are you getting all the nutrients you need? Drinking enough water? All of the oft discussed health habits apply to brain health as well.
We’re not advocates of taking pills, but especially as we age a good multivitamin is useful. They’re inexpensive and taken consistently, you’ll notice a positive difference in your energy level, day to day performance, and brain capacity.
Finally, another good way to improve memory is to challenge your brain. Sorry to say, but watching TV doesn’t cut it, with a few notable exceptions. Playing along with Jeopardy can kick your memory into gear.
Instead of relying on your car’s GPS, make a point to study the route beforehand and challenge yourself to remember it. You can always write down the directions just in case. But in today’s gadget driven society, we rely so much on technology instead of using good old fashioned brain power. The less we’re forced to use the brain and our capacity for memory, the less likely it’ll be there when we need it.
Thnik of your brain like your heart. Take care of it, use it, give it a workout. You’ll be rewarded long term with a sharp memory!
