A Beginner’s Brain: Everyday Habits to Supercharge Your Memory
A Beginner’s Brain: Everyday Habits to Supercharge Your Memory
Start with a daily structure
Hello and Happy Wednesday!
Here is your weekly dose of Postanly Weekly, curated content for wealth, wisdom, and smarter living. If you’re new here — Hello. I’m Thomas.
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Now onto this week’s post.
My 6-year-old daughter always wins when we play Disney Princess Memory Game. In our last game before this post, she asked; How do you always lose? How do you always win?, I answered with a question.
“It’s just magic,” she said.
Her memory is better than mine. She has a beginner’s brain. I feel like I’m not doing enough to improve my memory after every game.
Children have a great memory.
They remember information more accurately than adults. Their developing brains make connections faster.
“In one study, children were accurate 31 percent of the time in identifying pictures of animals they had seen earlier, while adults were accurate only 7 percent of the time,” reports Science Daily.
Your memory also plays a massive part in every aspect of your life.
Whether you’re an academic, writer, or avid learner, you need to retain as much information as possible.
The hippocampus is the brain region that plays a role in memory formation, spatial orientation, and other functions related to learning. Individuals who have good memories often have healthy hippocampus.
Our ability to remember is one of our greatest assets.
But it’s also one of our greatest challenges. But as you age, your memory might struggle a bit more than it did in your youth.
As we get older, the brain and the rest of the human body go through subtlechanges. Some people experience the transformation faster than others.
Aging isn’t just about growing old gracefully — it’s also about adapting to the changes that come with getting older. As you get older, your memory tends to decline more rapidly than it would if you stayed in your 20s.
Slow reasoning process, remembering difficulty and learning challenges are a few things you will notice when your memory starts declining.
In other words, it can be more difficult to maintain old, seemingly-outdated habits or routines. Even so, there are plenty of ways to boost your memory at any age, no matter how your memory is faring.
From learning new things to adding a few healthy options to your diet, you can boost your memory at any age.
You can maintain a healthy memory at any given age. Adult memory skills can be improved, but it requires consistent practice.
Your brain is a muscle that gets stronger with exercise.
How well you remember something depends largely on the amount of effort you put into learning it. The more you use it, the better it becomes at performing specific tasks. The same is true for your memory.
The human brain is wired to learn by repeating information.
The good news is you don’t have to disrupt your schedule completely to boost your memory. You incorporate a few activities and healthy habits into your daily routine to help keep your memory strong.
Good memory skills start early, and they’re not just something you’re born with. They’re a set of habits that you can cultivate at any age.
Everyday habits to boost brain power
1. Start with a daily structure.
You can quickly free up mental energy by establishing good rituals every day.Plan your day the night before. Have a place for everything. Keep your keys at the same place every time.
Your work or exercise accessories should be kept at the same place in your house. Don’t give your brain too much to do; reserve mental energy for important and meaningful tasks and things.
A daily structure improves memory efficiency. Some elements of our day are predictable; keep them that way to prevent you from wasting memory trying to remember where you keep everything.
2. Plan to do nothing for a few minutes daily.
You’ve read it before. But it works if you can practice it. I’m talking about mindfulness. Forget the long list of things you need to keep in mind to practice mindfulness.
Just make time in the begining of your day or at the end of your day to sit with yourself and stop thinking.
Sit comfortably, close your eye, breathe in and out slowly and feel your stomach move in and out. You are off to a great start if you can practice this beginner’s step for even 5 minutes daily.
3. Learn to meet your brain’s nutritional requirements.
Limit sugar, and reduce processed grains (choose wholegrains instead). Increase Omega-3 food sources (salmon, nuts and seeds such as flaxseed and chia seeds).
Moderate coffee, blueberries, dark chocolate, and leafy greens can also help boost brain power and memory.
4. Move. Move. Move.
I can’t stress movement enough. It’s literary medicine for the brain. Run, jog, walk, swim or cycle.; whatever works for you. Spend more time in nature.
Many studies prove that aerobic and cardiorespiratory exercises increase brain volume, especially in the gray and white matter regions.
“There is some evidence that exercise helps build new connections between brain cells and improves communication between them,” writes Harvard Health. Publishing.
5. Giving your brain new experiences will keep it healthier.
Try a new exercise route. Get up early and use a different path to work.
Use your senses more.
Notice everything you usually ignore on your way to work. Take in the sound of nature when you exercise or go for a walk.
“The true art of memory is the art of attention,” says Samuel Johnson.
6. And finally, put your brain to sleep and prioritise it.
Every sleep cycle is an opportunity for your brain to reset, restore and recover critical functions.
“Sleep strengthens connections between brain cells and different brain regions, and moves information into areas of the brain that are more efficient for storing it,” says sleep expert Richard Shane, PhD.
If you’re looking to improve your memory at any age, it’s essential to look at useful and helpful methods for you in the long term.
Focus on making brain health habits consistent. Some of these strategies will only be effective if you repeat them for as long as possible.
Your memory is important.
A better memory means that you can learn things more quickly and easily and retain what you learn longer than before. Do more to boost, strengthen, and improve your brain power, and it will serve you for as long as possible.
Essays of The Week
What makes a good life? Existentialists believed we should embrace freedom and authenticity — How do we live good, fulfilling lives? Aristotle first took on this question in his Nicomachean Ethics – arguably the first time anyone in Western intellectual history had focused on the subject as a standalone question.
The Hidden Toll of Microstress — Microstresses are small moments of stress that seem manageable on their own — think a vague, worrying text from your teen flashing on your phone while you’re in a meeting, the appearance of a colleague who always wants to vent to you, or having to tell your team that the project you’ve all been grinding out extra hours on is no longer a priority.
2 Ideas For Smarter Living
Former litigation lawyer turned writer, Robin Sharma, on how to be a master.
"Remember, every professional was once an amateur, and every master started as a beginner. Ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary feats, once they’ve routineized the right habits."
Source: The 5AM Club: Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life.
Law professor and author, Ozan Varol, on the right reasons to keep going.
“Our ability to make the most out of uncertainty is what creates the mostpotential value. We should be fueled not by a desire for a quick catharsis but by intrigue. Where certainty ends, progress begins.”
Source: Think Like a Rocket Scientist: Simple Strategies You Can Use to Make Giant Leaps in Work and Life
A piece of advice worth passing on:
“Money plays an important role in life, but it can’t be the only filter for how you decide to spend your time. Nobody will ever pay you to go on a date with your spouse or take your kids to the park or grab coffee with your parents.”
A quote I’m pondering:
“Imagine life is a game in which you are juggling five balls…work, family, health, friends, and integrity…Work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. The other four balls…are made of glass.” — James Patterson
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To our common journey,
Until next week,
Thomas