How Can You Improve Your Memory?

Memory is important.

We use it every moment, consciously or not, as we perceive the world and interpret it based on our memories and experiences. Your memory should be a finely-tuned, working piece of equipment that you can depend on.

So where can you start if you want to improve your memory?

 

Clear Your Mind
Some memory inefficiency is primariy caused by the clutter in our heads, the ceaseless stimulation of our senses and the barrage of information we so often complain about — unclutter.  Put your to-do lists onto paper, into a Word document, your task manager, or whatever works best for you. The important thing is to remove all those to-do tasks from your brain and free up attention for things that don’t need to be at the forefront of your mind.

Exercise
One of the best things you can do to improve your memory is get exercise.  The reason exercise works so well is that it pumps oxygen to your brain. Three hours a week walking, running, swimming or doing some form of aerobic exercise will give good results.

Diet
If you don’t eat well, you cannot improve your memory andyour overall mental performance won’t work well. What you’re aiming for is maximum nutrients so your neurons can fire and regenerate. Fruits, vegetables, and brain foods (anything containing omega 3 fatty acids like sardines and salmon) are important to mental performance. And B vitamins are also very important to healthy brain function — they give your memory a boost and reduce stress.

Take Time Out

 
The one thing you MUST do is refine your ability to take brief periods of distressing. Even a 10-minute stress break can make a huge difference in your mental performance AND your physical health.

Remember, stress is NOT just in your mind – it affects literally every cell in your body. And you need to know that uninterrupted stress actually KILLS BRAIN CELLS IN YOUR HIPPOCAMPUS, where memory resides. Take 10 should mean just that – take 10 minutes off the mental stress treadmill and reduce your stress!

posted by Jill Ammon-Wexler
Amazing Success

Got Mental Grit? You May Be a High Achiever!

What are the most common characteristics of high achievers?

It seems passion and perseverance may be more important to success than talent or intelligence. And pure grit may turn out to be at least as good a gauge of future success as talent.

In a series of studies at the University of Pennsylvania, researchers found that “gritty” people are more likely to achieve success in school, work and other pursuits—perhaps because their passion and commitment help them endure setbacks. In other words, it’s not just talent that matters but also character.

How Much Does Talent Count?
Want to achieve a goal? So… if effort is the bedrock of success, what roles do intelligence and talent play? Many large research projects suggest that intelligence accounts for about 25 percent of one’s success. While persistence, or pure grit, accounts for at least 50 percent, and creativity an estimated 25 percent.

Neurobiologist Angela Duckworth and positive psychologist Dr. Martin Seligman, known for his groundbreaking work on optimism, interviewed high achievers in various fields to identify their common distinguishing characteristics.

There were a number of people in their study who were brilliant, ambitious and persevering, Duckworth reports. But there were also a lot who were not geniuses, but were really tenacious. The researchers began to refer to this tenacity as “grit”—the determination to achieve an ambitious, long-term goal despite the inevitable obstacles.

And for those who may not be ranked as having a genius IQ, Duckworth and Seligman have an important finding: Grit has value for people at all levels of raw intelligence and ability. And they know how to achieve a goal.

In fact, their initial studies show that grit and intelligence are completely independent traits. Duckworth says regardless of your ability, it’s important to be focused, hardworking and able to bounce back from setbacks.

The Power of Passion

There is strong evidence that passion fuels persistence. Although extremely persistent people are usually passionate about their work, that doesn’t mean that the passion always comes first.

Perseverance, notes Duckworth, can itself foster passion. Often the most fascinating aspects of an area of interest only become apparent after deep immersion, to a level where you understand it and are enlivened by it.

For others, persistence may grow from a desire to test their limits. Consider endurance athletes, for whom challenge isn’t merely an obstacle to accomplishing something but often the spur to action in the first place.

Also in the Mix

Passion may be the linchpin of grit, but it’s not the only element. Truly gritty people tend to set especially challenging long-term goals. Self-discipline is probably also important, and studies have shown that gritty people tend to be highly self-disciplined.

Then there’s optimism, a trait that Dean Keith Simonton of the University of California at Davis finds is extremely common among high achievers. They just really believe in the end that they’re going to win, and they just keep on pushing, he says. That’s the ultimate self-discipline tool

posted by Jill Ammon-Wexler
Amazing Success

Is Time Travel Really Possible?

What are you doing when you aren’t doing anything at all?

If you said “nothing,” then you have just passed a test in logic… BUT failed a test in neuroscience.

When people perform mental tasks–adding numbers, comparing shapes, identifying faces–different areas of their brains become active, and brain scans show these active areas as brightly colored squares on an otherwise dull gray background.

But researchers have recently discovered that when these areas of our brains light up, other areas go dark.

This dark network (which comprises regions in the frontal, parietal and medial temporal lobes) is off when we seem to be on, and on when we seem to be off.

If you climbed into an MRI machine and lay there quietly, waiting for instructions from a technician, the dark network would be as active as a beehive. But the moment your instructions arrived and your task began, the bees would freeze and the network would fall silent. When we appear to be doing nothing, we are clearly doing something. But what?

The answer, it seems, is time travel.

The human body moves forward in time at the rate of one second per second whether we like it or not. But the human mind can move through time in any direction and at any speed it chooses.

Our ability to close our eyes and imagine the pleasures of Super Bowl Sunday or remember the excesses of New Year’s Eve is a fairly recent evolutionary development, and our talent for doing this is unparalleled in the animal kingdom.

We are a race of time travelers, unfettered by chronology and capable of visiting the future or revisiting the past whenever we wish.

But… If our mental time machines are damaged by illness, age or accident, we may become trapped in the present. Alzheimer’s disease, for instance, specifically attacks the dark network, stranding many of its victims in an endless now, unable to remember their yesterdays or envision their tomorrows.

Time travel allows us to pay for an experience once and then have it again and again at no additional charge, learning new lessons with each repetition. When we are busy having experiences–herding children, signing checks, battling traffic–the dark network is silent.

But as soon as those experiences are over, the network is awakened, and we begin moving across the landscape of our history to see what we can learn.

Traveling forward allows us simulate future courses of action and preview their consequences, learning from mistakes without making them. The dark network allows us to visit the future, but not just any future. When we contemplate futures that don’t include us– the dark network is quiet. Only when we move ourselves through time does it come alive.

Perhaps the most startling fact about the dark network isn’t what it does but how often it does it. Neuroscientists refer to it as the brain’s default mode, which is to say that we spend more of our time away from the present than in it.

People typically overestimate how often they are in the moment because they rarely take notice when they take leave. It is only when the environment demands our attention that our mental time machines switch themselves off and deposit us with a bump in the here and now.

THE LAW OF ATTRACTION MATRIX: Are You Ready to Take the Red Pill and Create the Life You Dream of?
By Dr. Jill Ammon-Wexler

The Law of Attraction (LOA) has become increasingly popular since the book entitled “The Secret” was published. Does it really work? Unfortunately more people report LOA failures than successes. There’s a very real science-based reason behind these successes and failures. Read More!

posted by Jill Ammon-Wexler
Amazing Success

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