Memory Minders

Stimulating Enrichment Services
to Enhance Memory & Wellness

Remembering in the Holiday Season

Started planning yet? Thanksgiving lists have begun, invitations are out and I’m knee deep in recipe testing. Now that it’s November and our jack-o-lanterns have turned to mush, the holidays are officially upon us. That typically means more gatherings with friends, family, and new or old acquaintances. It also means having to remember so much more.

This can be a good or a not so good thing. It’s good to exercise our minds and memories as we meet and gather with new and old friends and family. We use different parts of our brain as we engage with others and it’s a way to exercise our brains we cannot do alone. On the other hand, as memory issues slowly or dramatically make their appearance, social gatherings tend to highlight the problem. Often as family and friends, we tend to make excuses for those we love and chalk up memory lapses to many things, least of all an official problem.

Now this isn’t if Great Aunt Nellie can’t remember every great niece and nephew. All of us have some trouble with names, and when pressed, it can be difficult to remember everyone’s vital information. But if Aunt Nellie seems to have a hard time remembering even the simplest things, especially her favorite things and people, it may be time to seek some professional help.

So often, memory loss occurs for years before anyone seeks help. We explain it away as stress, grief, or old age. All of these can contribute to episodic memory loss. It’s also difficult to point out to our loved ones that their memory doesn’t seem to be what it once was. But the longer we put off the conversation, the more damage is done. The sooner it’s addressed, the sooner treatments and strategies can be implemented to improve memory and quality of life.

The holidays are busy and paying attention to our elder loved ones can seem like one more thing to do. But one way to truly honor them and their importance in our lives is to really pay attention to their memory and overall wellness. A fantastic resource to review before the holidays is the Know the Ten Signs resource by the Alzheimer’s Association. It can provide some vital background information to have on hand to help anyone with memory challenges.

Socializing with those we care about is one of the best parts of the holiday season. Engaging with others stimulates all of our memories and brains in a healthy way. But if any troubling signs are noticed in our loved ones, let’s not hesitate to begin a discussion. Early detection can save precious moments and make them more meaningful and memorable.

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Blaze Your Own Trail

Do you use all of your brain power? Probably most of us could put more of our brains to good use daily. It’s estimated we only utilize a tip of the iceberg amount of our brain’s capacity. Yet most of us are okay with this. Why?

Is it because thinking deeply or doing complex things is more difficult? I suspect this may be part of the reason, yet we also realize hard things usually get easier the more we do them. Still, we drag our proverbial feet toward improving our mental fitness and increasing our brain’s capacity.

I’m drawn to the path of least resistance, yet I also have experienced doing what’s outside my comfort zone often becomes my most rewarding accomplishments. Yes, at times I failed or didn’t achieve all my goals. But when truly worthwhile, I kept trying. It’s scary to not succeed or do complex things that make us feel physically or mentally inadequate. It’s simply easier not to do them. But this only creates more problems now and leads to less cognitive ability later in life.

Remember the law regarding inertia? A body at rest tends to stay at rest and a body in motion stays in motion. A similar concept can be applied to our brains. The more we use it, the more we have to use. I’d encourage us all to go even farther and use our Whole Brain-not just the parts we’re used to or enjoy.

When we explore the areas of our brain not typically used often, they’re strengthened and function better later. If we only do simple things, it’s like walking in someone else’s footprints. It’s easier but we’re not blazing any new mental trails.

We all know people who remain mentally and physically sharp as older adults. Why do you think this is? It’s not simply their genes. The physical and mental exercise they did when younger allows them to have improved cognitive function as older adults. What are we waiting for? Let’s blaze our own cognitive trail and do some hard things!

Here are a few simple examples to get started. Take a look, then make up some of your own based on your own unique experiences and where you want to take your brain power!

  • Start with what you love. Take an interest and go farther. Love cooking? Try a difficult recipe or a new, more complicated technique. Love reading? Try something outside of your favorite genre, join a book club or simply read aloud to activate different parts of the brain. Take what you already love to the next, more complex level.
  • Do your opposite. Stretch the opposite side of your brain. Use your non-dominant hand/side (safely of course). Hate math and numbers? Do some mental math, balance your checkbook without a calculator, or try a numbers puzzle. It doesn’t have to be for a long time, but doing that which we don’t enjoy strengthens underutilized parts of our brain.
  • Push past what’s comfortable. We’ve all heard of the ‘wall’ runners feel when distance running. When they ‘hit’ this and run through it, they usually succeed at their goal or at least feel better trying. We can do the same with our brains. Do another problem, read a few more pages, try to grasp one more concept or play one more song. Don’t push yourself into a stressful situation, but do challenge yourself and ALL the parts of your brain.
  • Do it for your future. Whether it’s more independence later in life, enjoying loved ones, and/or simply desiring a better quality of life, how we use our brain now will impact how we can use in it our future. Don’t wait for tomorrow, do it now.

Doing hard things in life is well, hard. It requires more brain power, willpower, and physical and mental stamina. But the reward for doing so is the improved brain function we’ll have both now and in our future. Let’s push past comfortable by blazing a mental trail into a better cognitive future.

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Beat Stress to Remember Well

It’s that time of year when political ads, calls, debates, mailings, and commentaries overload our senses along with fall colors. The upcoming elections in the United States are causing almost everyone’s stress levels to climb. Stress happens even when we don’t realize it and impacts our memories more than we think.

Everyday activities like simply watching the news, conversing in a coffee shop, or dining with friends can be a new source of stress. When routines are disrupted, change is forced upon us or uncertain futures loom, our stress meters creep into overload and even simple things escape our memory.

Stress can come from any source, but the symptoms are the same. Focusing is lost, scatterbrain develops, sleep is erratic, eating disrupted, and normal relationships feel strained. Stress causes many physical symptoms and even contributes to diseases, but its impact on our memory can also be quite impairing.

Is your stress meter needle inching into the red zone with the upcoming elections, holidays or other stressors looming? Feeling scattered, with even less of a memory than you used to have? You’re not alone. Many slip into depressive moods, fight more physical ailments than usual, and can’t make decisions well as the holidays approach. Stress contributes to all of this, yet many don’t always see stress as their source.

Elections, holidays, and other stressors will come and go and it’s up to each of us to manage how we deal with the effects of them. The first step like most things is to acknowledge if there’s an issue. Some people thrive on the increased activities and stress surrounding big events. Others struggle and if so, the next step is crucial.

Understanding how stress affects each of us is a great learning tool for our emotional and memory wellness. We can’t always change stress or its sources, but we can always manage our reactions. Our overall attitude matters a lot here and we’ll discuss that another day, but for now let’s focus on our stress awareness and management.

If we don’t manage stress well, physical and memory symptoms will develop. So let’s be aware of our typical reactions and then manage them in a healthy way to mitigate any potential fallout.

Some of the best ways to manage stress are also (not surprisingly) good for our brains. Try some of these stress busters:

  • Exercise. This releases endorphins improving mood, sleep and increases blood flow to help our memory. Win, win, win!
  • Take a mental or physical break. If able, physically get away if only for a few moments from any stress inducing person or situation. Some fresh air and a change of venue can do wonders for perspective. If this isn’t possible, take a mini respite in your own mind for a few seconds or minutes. Breathe in deeply a few times and draw in some fresh oxygen and perspective.
  • Talk it over. Whether it’s with a close friend, family member, an impartial professional or higher power, talking through a stressful situation with another can often help us find a solution or at least the next step.
  • Change it up. Often when faced with a stressful situation, we become creatures of habit. Sometimes, these habits can perpetuate the stress. Changing something, anything can often create momentum to move us in a new and less stressful direction.

Stress sneaks up on us or comes with full force. It stems from both unsettling and happy events and impacts our memory more than we imagine. Being diligently aware of its symptoms in ourselves and others will lead to many more memorable and less stress filled moments. So let’s be alert, manage stress and make more memories!

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Sensory Attention

The crisp air, the cool breeze blowing through the trees and the frosty dew of morning all are signals that autumn has finally settled in. I blinked over the last few weeks and the leaves seemingly turned color overnight. The humidity of late summer quickly shifted to the briskness of October. I always make the mistake during this yearly transition of not taking a coat and was again caught off guard last week. If only I had paid attention a bit more, I could have saved myself some chilly moments.

Paying attention to our senses is the first stage of remembering anything. Our five senses are the first connection and initial input of any memory. In these split seconds, we gather information to make decisions, including what we’ll remember about any given moment. The simple act of paying attention to sensory input helps us in a myriad of ways. Take my chilly day for example…

Lately, I’ve been a bit preoccupied with numerous things and was surprised after a busy few weeks to notice all the leaves had turned. I also sensed it was cooler, yet didn’t notice just how much. Because of this, I didn’t remember to wear a coat the next time I ventured outside. Gone for most of the day, each time I went outside the chilly breeze reminded me of just how cold the weather (and I) were. My sensory memories of that day certainly won’t allow me to forget my coat again.

What have you noticed lately? Is it the smell of burning leaves or the distinct whiff of the furnace kicking in? How about feeling the warmth from the oven or fireplace or the chilly air on a morning walk? Maybe it’s the taste of comforting soups, stews and warm beverages we haven’t had in afew months? Noticing these things gives us a type of placeholder to our days, a touchstone to point us back to this moment in time to help us remember.

All of this is possible simply by paying attention even more closely than we think is necessary. Clearly, I noticed the cooler weather, yet I didn’t allow this knowledge to really impact my decision to grab a coat on my way out the other day. A split second of increased attention is all it would have taken and I would’ve been much warmer.

Let’s lift our eyes, open our ears, take a whiff, savor each bite, and feel every breeze. Let’s truly experience all our senses have to offer! It will create touchstone moments, help us make better decisions and most importantly, allow us to be present in our lives in a more meaningful way. It doesn’t take more than a split second, but the memory value of those moments is truly priceless.

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The Priority of Sleep

To sleep or not to sleep, that is the question for many of us. No matter what stage of life, from infancy to our last days, sleep is always a priority. This has never been truer for me than in the last month.

It doesn’t matter if we are infants, parents of infants, stressed teens or adults, or older adults wrestling with sleep issues, every stage of life presents sleep challenges. Infants, children and even teens need extra sleep for brains to process and develop adequately. Parents of said children need sleep to be able to parent them well. As adults, many issues can interfere with sleep, some we have control over and others we don’t. Older adults often have their sleep interrupted by changing physical conditions and surroundings. Numerous variables impact our sleep, but the one thing that is constant is how important sleep is to our mental and physical wellness.

In the last month, I’ve dealt with physical issues, caregiving challenges and also mental roadblocks which have impacted my sleep. I understand the importance of sleep to mental and physical wellness, but not all the circumstances were under my control. I imagine this has happened to all of us at one time or another. So what can we do?

Control what we can and manage the rest.

At times, I chose less sleep due to unforeseen or uncontrollable circumstances. Other times, physical issues made sleeping more difficult and still other nights, worry invaded my peaceful rest. Not all of these were of my own doing. But I did strive to balance what I could to achieve at least a decent amount of sleep. Now that many of the issues have been or are resolved, my sleep is improving. But in the midst of the worst, I did what I could to manage.

A recent article reminded me of what’s all at stake with sleep and our memories. Our brain links memories with the rest of our world when we sleep. If this process doesn’t occur for whatever reason, we wind up not functioning as well mentally or physically the next day. Our memories are impacted and we cannot make decisions well. None of these are helpful as we try to function and learn whether as children or adults.

Here are a few tips that may be helpful when sleep challenges arise:

  1. Make sleep a priority. Don’t put it off thinking you can make it up later. Set a  bedtime and try to stick to it. If you literally can’t sleep as much as you should due to unforeseen circumstances, do your best to get as much as you can and get back on track ASAP.
  2. Don’t do anything but sleep. Don’t eat or watch TV, don’t worry or wonder, let it all go and rest. Write down any concerns you have, try to relax and let sleep come. Often new solutions rise when we lay down our worries with our heads.
  3. Try to plan for contingencies. If physical issues could cause problems while sleeping, take preventative measures. If too hot, use a fan. If in discomfort, try a new position or different pillow arrangements. Think ahead to solve some issues in advance.
  4. If sleep deprived, try a nap. If a good night’s sleep was missed, a short (~30 minute) nap the next day can be incredibly helpful and refreshing.
  5. Keep trying. There will be days and even weeks when sleep eludes us for various reasons in life. But let’s not slide into bad habits. Keep trying to get back on track to a healthy sleep schedule. Our bodies and minds will thank us.

Sleep is an integral part of our lives from birth to death. How we learn to manage and make it a priority in our lives will make an enormous difference in the quality of our lives. So here’s to sleeping well, remembering more and enjoying life one moment at a time.

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