Memory Minders

Stimulating Enrichment Services
to Enhance Memory & Wellness

Don’t Worry, Do Something!

“I’m worried about (fill in the blank of a loved one), their memory isn’t what it should be.” I hear this often and did again the other day. Many suffer more forgetful moments with age. For those of us in middle age, it can be due to increased stress or doing too many things at once to focus and remember well. In our older years, many see forgetfulness as a normal sign of aging and lesser abilities overall. While there is a bit of truth to that, we should still be able to recall what we want, when we want, even as we get older.

My friend said her loved one was less social and didn’t engage in many mentally challenging things any more. These comments were a red flag to me. Often those experiencing memory loss tend to withdraw from socialization because it’s more difficult. They don’t like doing mentally stimulating activities because they’re more challenging than in the past. It’s not fun being in those situations! But in these situations it’s important to stay engaged and also speak to your physician.

Memory loss can be caused by many things including stress, depression, medication interactions, or a physical issue. If these are all ruled out, then a neurological assessment should be done to see if there’s another reason for the memory issues. A complete workup can differentiate why memory issues are occurring and help with treatment.

But one thing that will help us all is mental stimulation. Ideally, we all want to challenge ourselves daily to the point of it being a mental workout, but not stressful. How we do this varies depending on the individual, time of day, circumstances etc. The important thing is to just do it!

Do what you love by pushing yourself to learn something new or by doing it differently. My friend who was concerned about her loved one said he liked to read, so I suggested reading aloud. It activates more of the brain than reading silently. Leisure activities may have to adjust too. If one card game causes stress, try a different one that challenges but doesn’t frustrate. Or simply do challenging things for shorter time periods to give your brain a break.

Another way to push ourselves mentally is to do it with friends or family. Play games together, go to cultural events, learn new things, or travel to new places. When we do things with others we stimulate our brains differently than we can by ourselves. It’s always more fun to learn new things with others!

Aging can create its own challenges and if memory loss creeps in, the difficulties mount. It’s important to acknowledge and seek assistance as soon as memory issues are noted. The earlier strategies are put in place, the better memory loss can be managed. Seek professional help and therapies to assist. Being proactive with mental fitness, being with others and learning memory strategies can improve and lengthen quality of life. Don’t worry about memory loss, do something about it!

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A #SummerToRemember Indeed!

Winds are shifting, leaves are beginning to fall and school bells are ringing. These telltale end of summer signs may make us feel sad about the end of one season and the beginning of another. But if you’ve participated in our #SummerToRemember series, it’s my hope you have plenty of memories to draw upon as autumn approaches.

Mine sure has been a summer to remember with monumental birthdays, milestone events and small moments to cherish. Whether yours was full of big moments or a series of small, all of them are worth savoring. We began this series with the premise that life is short, so let’s make our choices count. The goal was to create an environment for making memories of all our fleeting moments. I did pretty well-how about you?

First off, we discussed how the choices we make reflect what we value while also impacting what and how well we remember. What we choose to think about and how we manage our physical wellness is imperative. Taking care of our bodies and also prioritizing what’s important dictates how well we live and recall our lives. Making healthy choices matter.

To that end, we began with some challenges. The first one was to be aware of and hone the skill of focused attention. How we each do this is unique, but the main point is if we don’t or can’t pay attention well, we will never remember anything. It’s just not possible to input information into our memory without paying attention. If we learn and apply this, we’ll remember more.

Next was a challenge to identify HOW we individually prefer to remember. This typically stems from how we learn or our learning style-visual, auditory or tactile. We may not all understand how we learn best, but thinking about what we enjoy is a first step in knowing our unique learning style(s). Then we apply memory techniques to coincide with how we learn and bingo-we begin to remember more! 

Now that we know how to remember more, our challenge focus shifted to keeping our brains healthier. Just like a muscle wants to move, the brain wants to be used. It’s the old ‘use it or lose it’ adage which rings so true. We need to keep learning to keep remembering. Resting on our laurels only allows our brains to atrophy. In order to make it a summer or any moment to remember, we need to keep our brains learning, growing, creating, and maintaining neural connections. This can even be improved upon by stepping out of our comfort zones.

Just as we need to keep our brains learning, we need to keep our bodies moving. Exercising our bodies feeds our brains to function better. Remembering well is enhanced by physical exercise and hopefully the 5 tips to encourage more movement benefited you this summer!

Remembering well is not just about the what, but also the how. How something feels  as well as how we think impacts what we remember. Using our senses to connect memories while having a good attitude about life and all we experience truly strengthens our actual memories.

To remember well It’s crucial to manage the three S’s-socialization, sleep and stress. If these aren’t in sync and managed well, our moments can easily turn into ones of lonely, sleepless stress. Often this summer, my sleep habits were varied and I always felt it. Crabby, groggy and foggy could have described me on some days. But managing, adapting, and adjusting my sleep and stress when I could (not always as well as I would have hoped) was beneficial. Being with others can either cause stress or relieve it. Using all the tips given in these posts helped me manage and improve these big three components.

We went through a wealth of information in this #SummerToRemember series. It’s my hope you were able to learn but most importantly apply this information to make your own moments memorable. Take these memories and literally and figuratively store them in your memory and/or as something tangible like pictures, a journal or even simply sharing them with others. Our memories make up the fabric of our lives and the patchwork of our identity.

As we turn to September, autumn and the seasonal and life changes which will evoke different memories, I’ll be taking a week off to make and share memories with loved ones over Labor Day. Please do the same.

Life is short and every moment is meant to be savored. Take some time to enjoy the long weekend and share some memories with others. I’ll be back the following week, ready to encourage us all to even more memorable moments!

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Step into the Uncomfortable!

Step out of your box, your comfort zone and go beyond what’s easy. I teach and advocate this but at times find it difficult to do myself. We all prefer familiar and what doesn’t require much effort, but that WILL NOT strengthen our mind and memories. The comfy way doesn’t create the cognitive reserve which will help us to utilize our brains to their best capacity when older. It’s time to use not just the familiar, but stretch and grow into the unfamiliar. It’s time to use our whole brain!

Summertime is a time to reflect, relax and rejuvenate. Up until a bout a week ago, for me it was anything but these. It felt like a sprint and I was just trying to keep it all going and manage well. I fell into patterns and routines that were tried and true and would help me function well. There’s nothing wrong with this approach and it was beneficial for that time. However, now that patterns are changing and I have a few moments to breathe, it’s time for something new.

How we learn and take in information best varies for each of us. I like visual and auditory, prefer routines and organization. But there are also times to use my hands, be spontaneous and go with the flow. Summer is a great time to experiment and step out of our natural, preferable routines and try something new. When we do this, we activate parts of our brain that may be underutilized in our normal patterns of behavior. We use our whole brain not just the dominant part, which will be extremely important as we age.

Here’s a quick example-grab a pen, go ahead, right now-grab a pen.

Which hand did you grab it with? I bet it was with your dominant hand-the one you write with and do most things. Now grab that pen with the other hand-feels different doesn’t it? Now write your name with your non-dominant hand. Not so easy? Our left and right brains work differently, yet together. Patterns of behavior and our natural tendencies dictate which side becomes a bit more dominant. But that doesn’t mean it’s the only side we should use!

The more we use the non-dominant side of our bodies, it causes us to think differently. To write with our non-dominant hand we have to really think about how to make every letter. It’s like learning to write all over again. But we can do it, it just takes a different set of impulses to relay the information to that side of our body. Simply by using that other hand, we activate all kinds of brain cells in different ways. It’s similar to using different muscles-when we first use them, they can be sore and feel clumsy. But the more we use them, the easier the motion and the more we strengthen them.

Now we can take this same concept and apply it to how we manage our days, what we choose to do, and how we act and think.  It can be as simple as picking up a pen with the other hand to changing our entire approach or outlook. Whatever we do to use the lesser utilized parts of our brain inevitably strengthens those areas. This allows us to use these areas more as we age. The use it or lose it adage totally applies here. Use these areas of your brain now to not lose them later!

So are you with me? Let’s use our whole brain starting this #SummerToRemember and step out, be a bit uncomfortable and start an adventure of using ALL of our brain. It will surely help us all make our summer moments memorable!

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Your Future Brain Will Thank You!

We don’t think about exercising our brains as much as our bodies, but we should.

In order to age well, we not only need to take care of our bodies, but also pay attention to maintaining our brains, too. Studies have shown those who stay mentally engaged retain cognitive function longer than those who don’t exercise their minds. This week in our #SummerToRemember series, let’s explore ways to stay mentally sharp.

How do you exercise your brain? In our middle years, we have numerous mental challenges bombarding our brains all day long. We long for the day when we can physically and mental relax a bit in retirement. But that attitude can lead to golden years of lackluster cognitive function. In order to have sharp minds now AND later, we need to stimulate our minds daily, no matter our age.

Retirees may feel they deserve a break-as well they do. However, if we choose to not engage in mentally challenging activities as we age, we will lose the ability to think and function at a high level. It’s the ‘use it or lose it’ adage that applies to both physical and mental ability. When we exercise our brains, we then have more brain power to call upon when needed. It’s that simple.

When life shifts into retirement or a different season of life, how can we continue to challenge ourselves? By being creative!

Daily life offers a plethora of choices and options to stimulate our minds, but are we capitalizing on them? Whether it’s working, raising a family, juggling both children and parents, caring for grandchildren, or just managing our aging lives, we all have choices. How we choose to spend our time truly matters.

Are we engaging mentally in something that stimulates our brains or do we choose easier, more passive ways of spending our days? Are we using our time wisely or taking the path of least resistance to just get by? What we choose will make a difference in our mental capacity later in life. If we always choose the easy path and don’t challenge ourselves mentally, we’ll have less ability to do so later.

Let’s pick the road less travelled as Robert Frost put it. Let’s do simple things like take a different route or figure it out without relying on GPS. Let’s do the math in our head instead of using a calculator. Let’s create a new recipe instead of making the same old thing for dinner. Let’s try a new game, read a different type of book, join a new club or make a new friend. All these simple choices can make a world of difference in how our brain functions now and when we’re older.

The added benefit of challenging ourselves mentally is the good feelings it evokes. Trying something new or different feels uncomfortable at first. But after a while, we settle in, find our groove and eventually can take pride in even attempting something outside our box. Endorphins are released and happier, more satisfying feelings result. WIN, WIN, WIN!!

Give it whirl. Try something new, step out of your normal routine and stimulate your brain more than usual. Do it today, tomorrow and the next day so your future self will thank you.  Make it a #SummerToRemember by challenging yourself mentally!

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A Fresh Start

Turning the calendar to April always feels a bit like a new beginning. It’s the fourth month but in many ways, it feels like a fresh start. Spring is coming and April heralds its brilliance beautifully. New life sprouts from the earth, brighter colors flood the landscape, and animals are birthed in the fresh breezes of April. It’s also a great time to start anew on our memory wellness choices.

Let’s honor and begin this new month with a fresh perspective on how we approach our memory. What are you doing today to positively impact your memory in ten, twenty or thirty years? It’s not something we think of each morning, but we should. What we do today determines how well we’ll remember in our later years. Makes you think, doesn’t it?

So let’s begin this month by consciously choosing to improve and enhance our memory and overall wellness by what we do each day. These choices don’t have to be big, but they will add up to a huge impact over time. Our lifestyle choices are like compound interest for our wellness.

Here are a few ideas on how to start fresh on memory wellness choices:

  • Going to work? Park further away, take the stairs, walk at lunch and/or move each hour to insert more exercise into your day.
  • Eating today? Add or swap in some colorful, brain healthy foods to assist your memory and overall wellness.
  • Feeling Stressed? Step back from the situation to get a better perspective. Shift your attitude and manage the stress to avoid chronic illnesses and the brain limiting effects it can create.
  • Feeling Sluggish? Get up and exercise both mind and body as well as taking steps toward good quality and quantity of sleep each night.
  • Can’t remember like you used to? Stop and ask yourself if you’re doing too much or not enough. Doing too much distracts and steals our focus which hampers memory. Not doing enough mentally or physically leads to atrophy of brain cells which doesn’t allow the brain to access memories successfully. Organize and prioritize your time to remember well.

All of us can benefit from a fresh start for our memories and there’s no better time as we begin a new month and season. Every choice we make matters in this life. Are we making choices that will help or hamper our memory in the future? The choice is ours;  let’s choose well and make a fresh start for our memory today!

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