Forgetfulness affects most of us to one degree or another, but this is not always a cause for alarm. Sometimes a bad memory is a very good sign. Good memory is better though.
Over the years, it becomes more and more difficult to remember and retain new information and reproduce old information: the names of friends, dates, the plot of a book or film. Helping a child with lessons after 30 is also no longer so easy: the school curriculum has been forgotten, and memorizing a poem with a child takes much longer than during the years of study. And how many times do we not find the necessary things at home or in the office: keys, glasses or a phone? These are signs of ordinary natural forgetfulness. And you can fight it (if it suddenly became a problem for you) in well-known and rather simple ways: memory training, brainstorming (you can play it).
For example, to learn how to quickly memorize a large amount of text, you can train your memory: pick up a long poem and study every day 2–4 lines from it, each time repeating what you have already learned before.
For example, we learn the poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila”.
The first day we teach:
At the seashore, the oak is green;
The golden chain on the oak is that:
And day and night a cat scientist
Everything goes around the chain;
Second day:
Goes to the right – the song starts,
To the left – he says a fairy tale.
There are miracles: there the goblin wanders,
A mermaid sits on the branches …
And so on, every day memorizing a couplet or quatrain and repeating the previous ones. The most important thing in this method is consistency, and the result will not be long in coming.
For everyday situations, there are simpler ways of memorizing.
- You can make lists. Information written on paper, systematized and broken down by points, is remembered quickly and for a long time.
- You can mentally divide the amount of information into categories and groups. For example, when going to the store, you need to buy vegetables (carrots, cabbage, onions, cucumbers), fruits (apples, kiwi, pears), milk (kefir, cottage cheese), etc.
- When memorizing surnames or first names, associations with the names of relatives or acquaintances help. In addition, when meeting, it is important to pay attention to the features of the face, to look closely in order to clearly correlate a new surname for you with a specific person.
- It is necessary to learn to concentrate on one thing, as we work out muscles in the gym, without distraction, clearly controlling thoughts. Thus, the ability to concentrate at the right moment and to cope with new information in any situation develops, even if you need to unexpectedly speak in front of a large number of listeners and remember the necessary facts.
- The brain must rest! Pause in your work for a few minutes. This will relieve stress and give a new impetus to remember.
- A well-known panacea for everyday memory problems is reading and solving crosswords.
- Moderate physical activity, good nutrition, rich in B vitamins, a sufficient amount of water and fish in the diet is a wonderful prevention and support of mental activity.
The above situation with everyday forgetfulness is a normal phenomenon and even an excellent sign, because we notice our forgetfulness. According to scientists from the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, people suffering from dementia (or senile dementia) beginning after 50-60 years old quickly lose the ability to focus on forgetfulness, and this happens a couple of years before the first serious symptoms. That is, a person who is at risk of getting sick does not remember and does not understand his forgetfulness:
- Asks the same question over and over without remembering it;
- Lost in a well-known place, not guided by known objects;
- If he forgets things, he does not remember them. For example, if a healthy person forgets the keys, he remembers and comes back or complains about his absent-mindedness, then a person prone to dementia will leave the house without keys and will not even be aware of his forgetfulness;
- He gets confused in time, in close people and familiar places, but remembers in detail what happened many years ago. And if he forgets something, he begins to include whole fragments of fiction in his memories;
- People with severe memory problems forget to eat, wash, comb their hair and are no longer able to lead a normal life, shop, or drive a car. Life becomes divorced from reality, the simplest practical skills are upset: washing, brushing teeth, cooking, etc .;
- Untidiness is a separate symptom of dementia as a consequence of impaired skills and severe memory problems.
If you or your loved ones have the above signs, you need to consult a doctor. If your forgetfulness remains in the sphere of everyday life, insignificant, you can calm down: dementia, most likely, does not threaten you, and memory can be easily improved on your own.