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Retain, Improve and Strengthen Your Memory at Any Age
One of the scariest things about aging is the thought of losing your memory. We all
know seniors whose mental faculties seem to dim with age. The good news is, it doesn’t
have to be this way. If you make a conscious effort to work out your mind and your memory,
you’ll be able to stay mentally fit and healthy no matter what your age.
Working out your brain and your memory is much like working out at a gym. You’ll get
stronger and stronger the more you practice. Unfortunately, the moment you stop using your
brain your mental muscles will start to atrophy.
For a bodybuilder to lose muscle, all it takes is a couple weeks of sedentary life. The same
is true of the mind. If you retire and stop using your mind to tackle challenges, your
mental faculties will start to shrink pretty quickly.
Playing memory games is one of the best ways to keep your memory sharp. Here are a few
example games.
Example #1: Ask people in your life to have you remind
them of things. For example, “remind me to buy coffee beans when I leave today.”
Make it your personal challenge to remind your friends of all the things they need to
remember. When the people around you hear about this challenge, they’ll start to ask
you to remind them of all kinds of things. It’s fun, social and challenging.
Example #2: Try and remember the first names of everyone
you meet on the first try. Try remembering a random fact that someone told you, each
time you see them. This stretches your memory of people and relationships.
Example #3: Try to remember a long sequence of random
numbers. See how far you can get. Most people can only remember slightly less than the length
of a phone number on their first try. With practice however, you can remember a lot more.
These are just a few examples of deliberate memory games you can play to strengthen your
memory at any age.
What’s important about memory games is that they’re deliberate. In your job or at home,
it’s likely that you’ll have to use your mind and your memory, but it’s accidental.
You can’t deliberately use more mental effort, because there’s just no way to control it.
With games, you can choose to play them more often or less often. Depending on the game,
you can choose to make them easier or harder.
Much like working out in a gym, this is like adding weights, subtracting weights or doing
more sets. You can control exactly how you “work out” your brain and your mind through
games. If you’re worried about losing your memory, one of the best ways to prevent that
is through the deliberate and consistent use of memory improving games.