Brain Experts’ 6 Best Memory Tricks
posted by Lara, selected from Caring.com Nov 27, 2010 4:01 pmfiled under: Alternative Therapies, Elder Care, Family Life, General Health, Health & Wellness, Healthy Mind, Women's Health
By Paula Spencer, Caring.com senior editor
Wish your memory were a little sharper? Want to remember names and numbers as well as you could a few years back? Brain experts swear by the following six simple techniques.
1. Never forget a name: Look, snap, connect.
There are three steps to psychiatrist Gary Small’s favorite tactic, which he calls “Look, Snap, Connect.” The first is to tell yourself that remembering a particular name is a priority, says Small, who’s also the director of the UCLA Center on Aging and author of several books about memory and cognition, including The Naked Lady Who Stood on Her Head.
Memory Enhancers for Someone With Alzheimer’s
Step 1: Really focus (LOOK) on a name and face you want to remember.
Step 2: Create a visual snapshot (SNAP) of the name and face. Note a key visual characteristic: Big ears? Silver hair? Blue eyes? Dimples? Also create an image about the name: A cat stands for Mrs. Katz, a dollar bill for someone named Bill. “I sometimes see a famous person with a similar name,” Small says. “So Angela Shirnberger becomes Angelina Jolie wearing shined shoes and eating a burger.”
Step 3: Join the two images (CONNECT): Maybe blue-eyed Bill is a blue dollar bill, or Angela Shirnberger is a silver-haired Angelina Jolie with shiny shoes eating a hamburger. The simple act of thinking up these images helps cement them in your memory — and ups the odds that the new name will materialize for you the next time you encounter the person.
Brain Experts’ 6 Best Memory Tricks originally appeared on Caring.com.
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With or without a medical condition, it's always important to exercise the brain.
if one is interested, the memory stays on longer.
These tricks are really useful for anyone who is a bit 'distracted,' but I think that people would have to be very much in the first stages of Alzheimer's to be able to remember most of them! I found that when I have been working with elderly people and they are starting to get Alzheimers, you must be very careful not to make them stressed when they are trying to remember something. They say that it is like going in to a room and not having a clue why you are there.. you have to start going OUT oft the room and then, you may suddenly remember. It is the same with a name or a thought, if you tell the person not to worry about it now , you may find that when they relax and stop thinking about it, the thing they are trying to remember will suddenly pop back into their minds. I only say this, as I know that some of you will have elderly mums or dads and you may find it hard to watch them struggling to remember something. Some of them get so upset, especially if they were very intellectual and intelligent people when they were younger. Thanks for this post Lara. It is full of really good advise!
Great tips in this article! I will try some of them out. One of my problems, is that I forget to listen properly, and I only get half the info, so then have to ask others if they recall the rest of the info. I need to sharpen my focus when listening.
This is not really a memory trick but if you happen to be forgetful you will find this useful: set the alarm in your cellphone to remind you of important events or things you need to get done at a specific date. We usually carry our cellphones everywhere so you will sure get the reminder on time. Just for things you really don't want to forget, and for the rest...put that memory to work :)
Thanks, I plan to pass these on to my Mom, who is having memory difficulties.!
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Monday, November 29, 2010
Brain Experts' 6 Best Memory Tricks | Care2 Healthy & Green Living
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Victoria Silva.com » Blog Archive » Just For Today… Gifts from the Heart
I have started working on my Christmas gifts… several loved ones will receive needlepoint pillowcases from me… and with each thread I embroider I say a positive affirmation for the person I am making these for!
I figure the positive statements will stay with these pillowcases… and make a difference in their lives…plus I love putting all this good energy into my handcrafted gifts!
Try doing this with everything you do each day…even while you prepare and cook meals for your family…infuse the food with loving and empowering words and feeling!
Love you all
Victoria
In other words bless it.
Cheers!
Bernita
Monday, November 22, 2010
First Self-Empowerment Book Written By A Teen, For Teens | Care2 Healthy & Green Living
Alex Southmayd, a 12th grade student at Groton School in Massachusetts just released his first book, a self-help guide titled “Brain Snacks for Teens on the Go! 50 Smart Ideas to Turbo-Charge Your Life.”
Humans are always interested in looking, performing, and feeling better, but most self-help books are aimed at a more mature generation. Being a teenager himself, Southmayd is uniquely positioned to capture his own slice of the American self-help industry, which gathered $11 billion in 2009 alone.
With the proliferation of iPhones and texting, you might think that most teens would rather be caught dead than reading an actual book, but with depression, obesity, and teen suicide rates growing across the country, many are looking for help wherever they can get it.
Southmayd’s book seeks to avoid all the cliched terminology and spiritual aggressiveness that characterizes much of the self-help industry, and instead focuses on dealing with the issues that really matter to his peers.
As a teen himself, the author understands the pressures confronting teens today and jumps around covering all of them, from time management to acne, and from improving SAT scores( the author nearly has perfect SAT scores himself) to how drugs and alcohol damage the teenage brain.
Each of the book’s “Brain Snacks” brings together a variety of sources, from “my Headmaster at Groton School, Mr. Commons” to the American Medical Association, to illustrate a greater point.
Of course, simply handing your stressed-out teen a copy of this book won’t provide them with a magic road map for avoiding angst or getting into an Ivy League college, but it might help them to know that they’re not the only ones experiencing the woes of adolescence.
Also Check Out:
Feng Shui for Teens Bedrooms
The Journey of Joseph — A Teen North Korean Refugee
Inspiring Teenager Feeds Thousands of PetsImage Credit: Flickr – C.G.P. Grey
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Saying Grace
If you don’t usually say grace before meals, you might want to start doing so this Thanksgiving -- and whenever your family dines together. It’s a way to remind ourselves of all we have to be thankful for. Plus, for many families, the evening meal is the only time spent together. Grace provides an opportunity to reflect on how precious this time is.
If you say grace often, you may want to change what you say occasionally so that the words don’t become rote and meaningless.
We have collected more than 300 mealtime graces from around the world. Some of our favorites...
For each new morning with its light, For rest and shelter of the night, For health and food, for love and friends, For everything Thy goodness sends.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Unitarian minister, poet and essayist (1803-1882)
May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness. May all beings be free from sorrow and the causes of sorrow. May all never be separated from the sacred happiness which is sorrowless. May all live in equanimity, without attachment or aversion, believing in the equality of all that lives.
-- Traditional Buddhist prayer
Thank heaven for this food and for this company. May it be good for us.
-- Greek prayer
May we be a channel of blessings for all that we meet.
-- Edgar Cayce, American spiritualist (1877-1945)
God of pilgrims, give us always a table to Stop at where we can Tell our story and Sing our song. --
Father John Giuliani (1932-), Benedictine Grange, West Redding, Connecticut
Just to be is a blessing. Just to live is holy.
-- Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, author (1907-1972)
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Ordinary Fun
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Overcoming Loneliness | Care2 Healthy & Green Living
Have you ever felt an emptiness that nothing seemed to fill? Maybe you attributed it to a lack of support from your loved ones, to the absence of a partner, a friend or family member.
Maybe you were far from home, having trouble settling down or feeling like you didn’t belong in your new neighborhood. Maybe you felt like your heart was left back where you came from, in the hands of your beloved.
Whatever the cause, the feeling of loneliness stifles the heart and chokes the throat, leaving us introverted, panicked and anxious. Often we have this feeling even when surrounded by people; emotional scars, self defense mechanisms and other protections making us impermeable to the affection of others. Even people as famous as Marilyn Monroe, a woman who could surely never have lacked companionship, shared this feeling of solitude:
“I am alone, I am always alone, no matter what” she wrote in her diary.
I think we have all experience loneliness at one time or another and it is not a good feeling.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Chocolate, Purple And Making Peace With The Past – 50 Lessons To Live By | FinerMinds
Rumors of her being 90 years old just aren’t true, but that doesn’t make her sound bytes of wisdom any less potent.
You’ve probably seen some of Regina Brett’s “Life Lessons” before, like “When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile,” or “Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger”. They’re from her book God Never Blinks: 50 Lessons for Life’s Little Detours. Advice like this never grows old – or unwelcomed – so enjoy these mighty morsels of insight and happy Friday!
Serious Chocolate Steps
1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.
8. It’s OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.Peace without Comparison and God Never Blinks
11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.
12. It’s OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don’t compare your life to others’. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry; God never blinks.
16. Life is too short for long pity parties. Get busy living, or get busy dying.
17. You can get through anything if you stay put in today.
18. A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.
19. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.Candles, Purple and Sex on the Brain
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over-prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: “In five years, will this matter?”
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.Change, Miracles and Second Childhoods
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.
35. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.
36. Growing old beats the alternative – dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable.
38. Read the Psalms. They cover every human emotion.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.Is it Useful, Beautiful or Joyful?
41. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
42. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
43. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
44. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
45. The best is yet to come.
46. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
47. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
48. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
49. Yield.
50. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.Which is your favorite? Drop us a quick comment and let us know!
I love chocolate and these 50 lessons are very doable
Cheers!
Bernita
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
It is only Temporary | Lisa Unmasked
It’s Only Temporary
Written by Lisa on November 1, 2010 - Comments (0)
6 month challenge, Choice, Freedom, Life, Trust, letting go
Sitting at the traffic light looking up at the changing trees, I heard it.
It’s only temporary.
The words caused me to replay my morning in my mind.
Watching the clock as my daughter was flirting with being late for school. (tick-tock, tick-tock)
The Acura MDX who pulled up along side me hoping I wouldn’t notice that he was trying to race me before the lane merged. (Really, dog?)
The unconscious pedestrian who stepped out from between parked cars only looking in one direction. Not mine. (DUH!)
It’s only temporary.
All of it.
Everything that annoys you.
Everything that delights you.
Everything that makes you want to rip out your hair.
Everything that makes you cry with gratitude.
Temporary.
For there will be something else in the next moment to replace it.
Something in the next hour that will seem far more important.
Something in the next year that will make it seem as minor as who won last night’s game. (Which game, Lisa? Precisely.)
I get that it may not feel that way in the moment.
I get that whatever “it” is may even suck.
But I promise you, you can be with it.
If you so choose.
Because “it” is only temporary.
Today I invite you to look up from your situation. And notice.
Notice the trees. Notice the clouds. Notice the paint on the walls.
Just notice something else.
If you’re like me, you’ll return to your day with fresh eyes and a new perspective.
It…
is…
only…
t-e-m-p-o-r-a-r-y.
Enjoy it while it lasts.
I'll be looking around at everything today and thinking it's only temporary.
Enjoy!
Bernita