The Vibrant Channeled Creator

THURSDAY, MARCH 07, 2024
 
“What should we do when we feel tempted and oppressed? Negotiate with the devil? No: there must be no negotiating with him. We must invoke Jesus, invoke him there where we most strongly feel the tightening of the chains of evil and fear. By the power of his Spirit, the Lord wants to say to the evil one again today: “Be gone, leave that heart in peace, do not divide the world, families and communities; let them live serenely so that the fruits of my Spirit, not yours, may blossom there” — this is what Jesus says — ‘so that love, joy and meekness may reign among them and so that there may be freedom and peace, instead of violence and cries of hatred’.”

Pope Francis

Forgetting names or your keys isn’t generally a sign that anything is seriously wrong with your memory, according to neuroscience. But that doesn’t mean these common lapses in memory aren’t annoying and sometimes even detrimental to your business. 

Short of magically turning back the clock a few years, is there anything to do to reduce the number of important things you forget?
If you’re learning a new subject or otherwise looking to cram an incredible amount of information into your brain, so-called memory athletes — people who compete to accomplish amazing feats like memorizing the order of a deck of cards in seconds — have plenty of tips and tricks to offer. 

But for more everyday issues like forgetting your anniversary or an important work meeting, neuroscience has a simpler suggestion — just educate yourself a bit more about how memory actually works. 

You actually have two kinds of memories. 
In his new book, Why We Remember, University of California, Davis memory researcher Charan Ranganath aims to do just that. And in a recent Greater Good Science Center article, he offers a few useful peeks into the book’s contents. 

Our memories, Ranganath explains, aren’t like a hard drive or a photo album. Instead, what we generally think of as a single ability is made up of two separate skills, each with its own quirks. 
Episodic memories, laid down by your brain’s hippocampus, record specific moments in time. These types of memories are often linked to specific sensory experiences and feelings. That’s why listening to a hit song from when you were a teen can bring back rich, detailed recollections of when you heard it back then. It’s also why feeling sad now will often trigger memories of times you felt sad in the past. 
Your prefrontal cortex is responsible for the other type of memory — semantic memory — which records not isolated episodes, but skills or lessons gleaned from your past experience. 
“So, while the hippocampus might contain memories of the many places we’ve left our house keys in the past, the prefrontal cortex might recognize a pattern in those memories and help us know where to look for a lost pair. It may also notice a pattern of memory lapses, signaling us to be more careful in the future,” Greater Good offers as an example. 
How to make memories stick
All of which is a fascinating bit of neuroscience, but what’s the practical takeaway?  Ranganath insists that understanding your memory suggests ways to improve it. 

First, don’t forget the basics. Studies show not getting enough sleep is terrible for your memory (you probably didn’t need science to tell you that), and Ranganath endorses the use of mnemonic devices like the rhymes and acronyms we all used to memorize the colors of the rainbow or the year Columbus first reached America when we were kids. 
If you understand that episodic memories are often linked with particular sensory experiences, you can leverage that to boost your memory as well. So put on that ’90s playlist or cook your mom’s signature dish if you want to take a trip down memory lane (science suggests indulging in nostalgia is good for you). 
You’re also more likely to recall something if it is linked with a fresh, strong sensory experience, which is why “going to a new restaurant with your romantic partner will make the experience more memorable than going to a favorite hangout, where you often dine,” Greater Good explains. 
Finally, if you understand that semantic memory is a distillation of many experiences, you can help support your brain’s efforts to turn moments into memories in several ways. Recalling a memory multiple times helps cement it in your mind (though be warned that memories tend to shift each time we bring them to mind, so this can corrupt memories too). Talking through memories with others might alter them slightly, but it works to turn isolated fragments into a lesson or story that sticks with you. 
“When we get to know the remembering self, we can seize the opportunity to play an active role in our remembering, freeing ourselves from the shackles of the past,” claims Ranganath. 
Understanding how memories are made empowers us to better guide the process of laying them down and recalling them. I can’t guarantee that means you will never forget your keys, but it should help you lock in the memories that are most important to your life and work.
keys isn’t generally a sign that anything is seriously wrong with your memory, according to neuroscience. But that doesn’t mean these common lapses in memory aren’t annoying and sometimes even detrimental to your business. 

Short of magically turning back the clock a few years, is there anything to do to reduce the number of important things you forget?
If you’re learning a new subject or otherwise looking to cram an incredible amount of information into your brain, so-called memory athletes — people who compete to accomplish amazing feats like memorizing the order of a deck of cards in seconds — have plenty of tips and tricks to offer. 

But for more everyday issues like forgetting your anniversary or an important work meeting, neuroscience has a simpler suggestion — just educate yourself a bit more about how memory actually works.