Memory Tips, October 2014 Back Issue

This is the October 2014 back issue of my Memory Tips email newsletter. To learn more about this free newsletter or to start receiving it in your email, please visit the Subscription Page. A list of back issues is available on the Back Issues page. I send out the newsletter once a month, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Welcome to the OCTOBER 2014 issue of my free Memory Tips email newsletter. Below are powerful strategies for improving your memory. Ready to boost your brain power?

Below are powerful strategies for improving your memory. Plus I've included links to free online brain games that can strengthen your thinking skills.

In this issue:

Memorize Poems to Strengthen Your Memory
Laughter Boosts Memory
To Better Remember a Book or Online Course, Memorize Chapter Titles
FREE Brain Games: Improve THINKING SPEED

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My goal is to help you learn faster and remember more. That's why I created Memory-Improvement-Tips.com and this email newsletter.

The secret to a more powerful brain is two-fold: 1) improve your brain health, and 2) learn memory techniques. This can lead to more success and fulfillment in life!

Memorize Poems to Strengthen Your Memory

The old adage "use it or lose it" applies as much to your memory as it does to your muscles. That's why scientists advise keeping your mind active as you age. One powerful way to flex those mental muscles is by memorizing poetry.

Before you dismiss the memorization of poems as too time consuming or difficult, consider that poems come in all shapes and sizes. Start with easy poems! Then work your way up to more challenging ones as your skill at memorization improves.

For example, although Kubla Khan (Xanadu) by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is perhaps worthy of memorization, it's a bit lengthy. If you're new at this, instead attempt easier yet still meaningful poems such as "The Rainbow" by Christina Rosetti:

Boats sail on the rivers,
And ships sail on the seas;
But clouds that sail across the sky
Are prettier than these.

There are bridges on the rivers,
As pretty as you please;
But the bow that bridges heaven,
And overtops the trees,
And builds a road from earth to sky,
Is prettier far than these.

There is a fabulous secondary benefit to memorizing poetry. You can amaze family and friends by spouting forth beautiful occasion-specific verses unexpectedly.

Here's what I mean. Most people have seen a rainbow. Usually, we grasp for eloquence to describe its beauty, failing miserably with inane comments like "Wow!" or "How beautiful!"

Imagine instead reciting Rosetti's "The Rainbow". You've just added new meaning to the experience, not just for yourself but for those with you.

To make memorizing poetry easier, check out this free Poetry Memorization Gude from MensaForKids.org which provides helpful tips.

Search the web or books for poems that capture your imagination. Print the poems and tape them to the wall of your office or bedroom, write them on flash cards, or put them in a binder.

Set aside a few minutes each day to practice each one. Your skill at memorization will improve, and you'll develop a growing repertoire of poetry to recite on special occasions.

Laughter Boosts Memory

Maybe laughter really is the best medicine. As reported in Healthy Years newsletter, a study by Loma Linda University found that people who were shown humorous videos had decreased stress and better memory afterward.

We all recognize laughter makes us more relaxed. The surprising discovery is laughing with friends or a funny book or movie actually boosts cognitive power.

The connection between humor and brain power is the stress hormone cortisol. Stress worsens your memory!

Many people's lives are filled with anxiety related to family issues, career, health, finances, and other factors. These stressors stimulate the release of cortisol into the bloodstream.

This is the body's natural response to stressful situations. It is a fight-or-flight response which temporarily increases heart rate, slows digestion, and increases concentration in response to danger.

For short-term stress, this is fine. Negative health effects begin to arise, however, when the stress doesn't go away.

In ancient times, you might be confronted by a lion and need to run away quickly. Once you escape the lion, the crisis is over.

But we can't run away from today's difficulties. There is no quick escape from credit card debt or an overbearing boss or a painful health condition.

So our stress levels (and cortisol levels) stay high. And high levels of cortisol have been shown by research to damage health and impair memory specifically.

Give yourself relief from chronic stress and boost your memory by including more humor in your life. Watch comedies or just hang out more with that friend who makes everyone laugh. Buy a joke book, and memorize a few jokes to tell your friends.

Find ways to include humor, laughter, and fun companionship in your everday life. You'll feel better physically, and as research has shown, your memory may improve as well.

To Better Remember a Book or Online Course, Memorize Chapter Titles

If you have trouble remembering what you read, this memory tip is for you. When reading a book or taking an online course that has named chapters, memorize the chapters titles before you begin.

This sounds hard, but if you use one of the visualization-based memory systems such as the Peg or Link method, this can be done quickly and fairly easily in many cases.

Recently I decided to earn my boating license, so I could go sailing on a lake nearby. I had no prior knowledge about boating or sailing. The online boating certification course I enrolled in was filled with unfamiliar rules and terminology.

I studied hard and used the memory systems to commit the material in the course to memory. And it paid off. I scored 100% on the final exam on my first attempt.

But before I began studying Chapter 1 of the course, I memorized the titles of all the chapters. I knew this would be a powerful way to hold the contents of the course in mind.

Here are the chapter titles, from memory as I type this:

Chapter 1: The Boat; Chapter 2: Boating Equipment; Chapter 3: Trip Planning & Preparation; Chapter 4: Emergency Procedures; Chapter 5: Navigation Rules of the Road; Chapter 6: On the Waterways; Chapter 7: Water Activities & Marine Environment; Chapter 8: Safe Boat Operation; and Chapter 9: State Requirements.

I used the Rhyming Peg system to memorize these. I won't describe all 9 mental images I made, but here are the first few to give you the idea:

One-Sun: A giant boat crashing into the sun, breaking into a million pieces.
Two-Shoe: Someone turning a boat upside down and shaking it; all the boat's equipment tumbling into an enormous shoe.
Three-Tree: A tree with arms opens a map with its left hand with packing a suitcase with its right hand.
Four-Door: An ambulance crashes at high speed with siren and lights flashing through a big wooden door.

If you've never used the Peg techniques before, this may appear quite odd. But these systems tap into the very true and powerful ability of the right brain to recall images.

I encourage everyone to learn the Peg systems. The rhyming pegs (one-sun, two-shoe, three-tree, four-door, etc.) are easy to learn quickly.

Then apply this method to any lists you might want to memorize, including chapter titles. It also works for subsection titles and other divisions of the course or book.

FREE Brain Games: THINKING SPEED

There are 244 free online brain games on my website, Memory-Improvement-Tips.com. You can play them online anytime. No restrictions, no logging in. Just pick a game, go to the game page, and start playing.

Below are links to three of the online games that train thinking speed, a very important brain skill. Play them now to give your brain a boost.

Thinking speed includes mental skills such as visual perception, information processing, and spatial orientation.

Original Tetris. This original Tetris game knock-off has all the charm of the first Tetris including the original music. Blocks of various shapes and colors drop one-by-one from the top of the game. Your goal is to completely fill rows of blocks at the bottom of the screen.

Bejeweled. This free Bejeweled game is a colorful brain game that improves concentration and thinking speed. The object of Bejeweled is to move individual jewels to form "three-in-a-rows". The three jewels disappear, and the columns and rows of the game fill in with new jewels from above.

Gravity Grid. Gravity Grid helps train spatial orientation and quick-thinking. Flip and turn the grid to match up same-colored blocks. The aim of the game is to connect all the blocks by their colors. Do this by rotating or flipping the grid.

That's all for now, and thanks for reading. For lots more tricks and strategies to improve your brain, visit the Get a Better Memory page on my website.

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