Memory Minders

Stimulating Enrichment Services
to Enhance Memory & Wellness

Practice, Practice, Practice

Often as we age, new information is often more difficult to recall than things of the past. Why this occurs isn’t surprising and there are definite strategies to help. But it does take practice.

If I say autumn, what do you immediately think of? Did the cool, dry air of the last week remind you autumn is coming? Pumpkin flavored everything and Halloween decorations appear even before the calendar turns to September. Autumn and all we associate with it doesn’t just happen. It’s based upon our previous memories which are largely based on what and how we choose to remember.

What we remember about any event, moment, season or bit of information is based on what we do with the input coming into our brains. Do we choose to feel the cooler air, see the leaves changing or wind picking up? We may dismiss this information because we are focused on something more important in our lives at that moment. But if we don’t pay enough attention to any bit of information, we’ll never remember it.

Focused attention is the first component of remembering but the next step is just as important. Taking that information and doing something with it will help us recall it later. It’s those little techniques we all use to help us-writing it down, associating, repeating it, visualizing-these strategies really cement the moment in our memories.

So when we see the leaves change, we immediately think autumn because it’s an association we’ve learned and repeated over and again since childhood. But how can we recall recent information and moments? The same way. Use memory techniques often and together to remember more. It’s not surprising we remember things from our past better than newer information-we’ve had more time to apply memory techniques to the information over and again.

Recently I needed to remember something very common on my computer. But I hadn’t used it in a few months. I tried to recall the information using all kinds of techniques. Then I finally looked for the information where I knew I could find it and voila there it was! Being organized and knowing where and how to find information is also a memory technique. This can be just as important and easy as remembering it.

We don’t have to remember EVERYTHING. We just need to know where or how to find it. The use of memory techniques to remember will be the tools we use to remember well as we age. Now we just need to practice and use these techniques daily and soon our memory for even the newer things of life will improve.

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Celebrate Memorably!

Surprise! Happy Birthday! Congratulations! Our sentiments flow with monumental markers of time: birthdays, anniversaries, graduations etc. We all enjoy and celebrate these important milestones of life as we should. But even better is knowing these social events will help strengthen our memories.

The special moments of life provide an opportunity to be with those we love and create memories together. But it doesn’t have to be only special occasions when we gather to mark a memory. We can make any moment memorable with only a few simple techniques.

First off, be present and pay attention-doing so can create a memory spontaneously. We’ve all had those times when something unique makes us laugh or we sense the importance of a fleeting moment. Don’t dismiss these, capture them instead with acute attention to the present.

A little planning goes a long way. Whether it’s a big event or intimate moment for two, a little planning can make or break any social event. When we are with others, our brains think and function differently. The natural give and take and spontaneous interaction provides the mental stimulation which helps our memories. But it also can cause distractions. If we plan some things ahead of time, it can eliminate having to remember everything in the middle of a moment.

Follow through and have fun. If you want to create a moment with others, then do it. Too often, everyday life intervenes and we miss marking moments while caught up in the mundane. Want to have lunch with your friend, join that book club, or take that trip? Then just do it. Follow through, plan it, then have fun in the moments you’ve created.

Be a willow. Flexibility to this type A planner girl doesn’t always come easily. But I’ve learned to be a willow and bend with the winds that sometimes blow our best plans off course. I often ask myself what will matter or be memorable later, my irritation or the memory being created? My annoyance or inability to be flexible may just ruin the moment or even worse, create an unhappier memory than desired. Be smart, pick your battles and be a willow.

These simple and easy tips make moments and memories special. But because they seem so simple, they are easy to dismiss. Don’t. Let’s not pass by our moments. Let’s apply these simple tips and make all our moments, especially those with others, as memorable as possible this #SummerToRemember and everyday.

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Capture Summer Memories

It’s a year of firsts and lasts for us with two growing teens and an aging family, causing me to hold onto all those memories. Wanting to enhance my own memories and help educate others on memory issues are both part of the impetus behind our #SummerToRemember series. No matter our season of life, we all want to capture our precious memories. But how?

When asked for memory tips my answer is always the same: pay attention. It’s as easy and as complicated as that. In a society where instant gratification and multitasking are praised as virtues, remembering well relies on honing the skill of focused attention.

Nothing we experience can ever move from short term to long term memory correctly if it isn’t paid attention to in the first place. How many times do we catch ourselves wondering or asking for something to be repeated because we missed it the first time? It happens to me WAY more than I’d like to admit! But it does happen.

Our attention span has shrunk to mere single digit seconds. If we don’t get our point across quickly, we’re either interrupted or put on the back burner of someone else’s attention. I’m guilty of this too. But I also try to be cognizant of when it’s happening. Now, I not only catch myself but others’ lack of attention. Once we’re aware of our waning attention we see in others, too.

So what’s the magical path to focused attention and preserved memories? This, my friends, we each need to find on our own. Some (today’s entire generation under 30) use pictures to chronicle their lives. This is fine but it can cause us to miss the presence of a moment by attempting to get the perfect pic. Some try to hone their attention by practicing mindfulness-a process of being still and mindfully paying attention to the world around us while not attempting to manipulate it. Others use meditation; seeking to forge a higher sense of concentration and stress relief. Still others pray, seek help, or practice focus building with a combination of the above or another way entirely.

There is no one universally applicable path to honing our attention. Over the last few years, I’ve purposefully chosen to be more present in everything and with everyone. I’ve had good and not so good moments with this process, but it has brought an increasing awareness to my attention span (or at times, lack thereof).

I tend to move and desire to get things done quickly. But I’ve learned to slow my pace, take life in and not try to control things so much. I try to be aware of when my mind begins to wander, my pace quickens or am attempting too many things at once. It’s a bit outside my comfort zone, but it’s helped me focus on what is important in any given moment and also remember more.

Last week our challenge was to identify what was valuable that we wanted to remember most this summer. This week’s challenge is to identify what’s influencing or hampering our attention span.

Are we multitasking more than we should? Easily distracted by too much in your environment? Let’s use what we identified as valuable last week to help identify what gets in the way of paying attention to said thing or person. How can we shift our focus from what’s not important to what is?

I challenge us all to think about our attention and create strategies to focus on the important each day. It’s the next step toward making this a #SummerToRemember!

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Choose to Remember

Life is made up of choices. One after the other, every day, all day, we make choices whether we realize it or not. Not doing something is also a choice. We either choose TO DO or NOT to do something. Either way it’s a choice. All these decisions can be overwhelming and daunting, especially as we age. Our choices matter, so how do we choose wisely?

By keeping what’s important in perspective.

If we want to make wise choices for our memory and brain, we need to keep what we value in perspective. What’s important to you as you age? Is it a healthy body, mind, and spirit? Are your relationships important, your work, faith, and/or your legacy? What we deem important is where we focus. To make wise choices, we need to keep what we value at the heart of all of them.

Making choices involve many different parts of our brain, particularly the frontal lobe. Decisions can become more difficult due to our aging brains but also from our daily lifestyle choices. Making memories, remembering what we want to when we want to, and making decisions can all be made a bit easier by how we live. Our everyday choices have an impact on our memory and overall brain wellness.

Maybe it’s because I’m seeing children turn into adults in front of my eyes or watching loved ones and clients age, but I want all my choices to reflect what matters most. I want to remember well and want those I care for to remember well too. Life is short, so let’s make our choices count. Let’s create an environment to make memories in all our fleeting moments.

Summer memories are often some of our most treasured. Our choices, whether made quickly or after thoughtful deliberation stitch together the fabric of our memories. So let’s choose to start here, today and this summer. Let’s make this a Summer to Remember by consciously choosing what’s important to us and for us.

To dive into making this a Summer to Remember, we must understand our lifestyle choices made multiple times daily impact our overall and also our memory wellness. Choosing wisely includes managing what and how we think, what we eat, how much we move our bodies, and understanding how to focus and use our memory well. These and other topics will be the focus of our blog for the summer.

To begin, let’s all take a moment in the next week to identify what’s truly important and the memories we’d like to create this summer and in the future. Write down what’s important to you and make a list of memories you’d like to create. This may take planning either to initiate or to get ourselves ready to make a memory. Choices stem from what we value, so let’s identify what’s valuable for each of us. Beginning next week, we’ll dig into a new topic impacting our memory wellness each week to truly put ourselves in the best position to make this a Summer to Remember!

Join me on social media by sharing what you value and want you’d like to capture this summer by using the hashtag #SummerToRemember. Let’s focus on what’s important and dive into a Summer to Remember!

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Coming Soon…

It’s almost here, can you feel it? Maybe it’s something we aren’t happy about…the impending loss of a loved one, or an unwanted life change. Or maybe it’s new and exciting…a wedding, graduation, or move into the future we’ve been anticipating and planning. Often the waiting and build up can be full of worry, eagerness, and frustration, but one thing life always brings is memories.

How to make and keep memories in each of these anticipated moments can be lost in the experience itself. Often big events can happen so fast or are so full of emotion we miss making memories in the moment. Let’s not miss these memories, because it’s these little and big moments of life that make each of us unique. Even if all you’re anticipating is a relaxing summer, let’s not miss any of our upcoming memorable moments. Let’s instead make it a Summer to Remember!

On the blog this summer, we’ll discuss all those moments that may be coming (or even some that may have already passed) and how to remember them well. It will truly be a Summer to Remember! We are all at different stages of life. Some of us have aging parents or spouses, growing and busy children, or both! But we all have aging brains and memories, too. It’s my goal to encourage all of us, no matter our stage of life, to capture and remember our moments well.

But I would love your help, too!

Please give me some feedback on what you need and would find most beneficial from our #SummerToRemember blog series. Reply to this email or leave a comment on how we could help you the most. Some ideas are:

  • What bothers you the most about your or a loved one’s memory?
  • What additional resources could you use to make it a summer to remember?
  • What memory encouragement do you wish for?
  • Any other ideas on how we can assist you in making your moments memorable?

Life is full of moments. Some are mundane and routine. But even in the small moments of life, we can garner nuggets of memories. Even more important are the big, anticipated moments we want to hold onto. I look forward to sharing some simple strategies and encouragement in the next few months to cause us all to make it a summer to remember. Please chime in here with a comment or reply, on Twitter, or Facebook with how we can make it most beneficial for you.

Let’s grab hold of all our memories, make them truly memorable and a #SummerToRemember!

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