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

How Can I Handle Tough Times?

Are you trying to deal with something you can’t control – tough times due to a natural disaster, the plunging economy, or just plain old bad luck?

 It IS possible to bounce back from tough times and go on to create an even better life.  But this requires a  kind of deep inner strength called resilience.

What is resilience? It’s the ability to find hope amid uncertain conditions. Resilient people do not let adversity define them. They transcend pain and grief by perceiving tough times as temporary, and believe better times are coming.

People do seem to differ in their inborn ability to handle life’s stresses, but resilience can also be cultivated. At the heart of resilience is a belief in yourself. It’s possible to strengthen your belief in yourself and to define yourself as capable and competent.

How to Handle Tough Times
One key to developing resilience is to go back in your mind and reinterpret past events. What you  want to do is  to discover the personal strength you built by surviving that event.

Resiliency is the capacity to rise above the challenges of tough times. Resilience is not the ability to escape unharmed. Resilient people have scars to show for their experience.

At the  heart of becoming more resilient is a technique called Reframing. This is a way of shifting focus from the cup half empty to the cup half full. Take the case of one woman who had been emotionally abused by her parents throughout her childhood. Her healing occurred in an instant when she realized what a powerful survivor she was.

Re-examine your life story to see how heroic your acts were as a child. Go back to an incident, identify your resulting survivor’s strengths, and your build self-esteem from this achievement. Build your resilience FAST!

Does Relaxation Really Change Your Genes?

Scientific studies now show that deep relaxation actually changes our bodies on a genetic level.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School discovered that long-term practitioners of relaxation methods such as yoga and meditation have far more “disease-fighting” active genes compared to those who do not practice relaxation.

This includes genes that protect from: pain, infertility, high blood pressure and even rheumatoid arthritis. The changes were induced by what they call “the relaxation effect” — a phenomenon  just as powerful as medical drugs,  but without the side-effects.

The experiment, which showed just how responsive genes are to behaviour, mood and environment, revealed that genes can switch on, just as easily as they switch off.

“Harvard researchers asked the control group to start practising relaxation methods every day,” explains Jake Toby, hypnotherapist at London’s BodyMind Medicine Centre, who teaches clients how to induce the relaxation effect. “After two months, their bodies began to change – the genes that help fight inflammation, kill diseased cells and protect the body from cancer, all began to switch on.”

More encouraging still, the benefits of the relaxation effect were found to increase with regular practice – the more people practised relaxation methods, the greater their chances of remaining free of arthritis and joint pain with stronger immunity, healthier hormone levels and lower blood pressure.

The research is pivotal because it shows how a person’s state of mind affects the body on a physical and genetic level. But just how can relaxation have such wide-ranging and powerful effects? Research around the world has described the negative effects of stress on the body. Linked to the release of the stress-hormones adrenalin and cortisol, stress raises the heart rate and blood pressure, weakens immunity and lowers fertility.

“What you’re looking for is a state of deep relaxation where tension is released from the body on a physical level and your mind completely switches off,” he says. You can only really achieve it by learning a specific technique such as self-hypnosis,  meditation, or neural brainwave training.”

« Previous Page — Next Page »