How to exercise your brain

Human Mind

Science has learned a great deal about human mind in recent years, but much of its workings remain a subtle and little known process. One thing is certain – the human brain and the way it processes information is a thousand times more sophisticated than any computer or information processing system known to man. One might think that a computer stores information more reliably, but actually this is not so.

Efficiency of a brain 

The human brain is far more efficient and processes a great deal more information than a computer does. Perhaps you are sitting in your room reading this. Look at all the objects around you. You probably know each of them very well, and also retain a good memory about he location about a great many of the things in your home. There is also a lot of subtle information that you store that you may not even be aware of. You probably have a detailed memory of a picture on your wall, and of how bright the lights in your room will make the room when you switch them on.

Tapestry of your life

You know what a cold wind feels like on a winter's morning, you know what the sun looks like reflected in the river. You know all these things and a thousand million things more, and they all go together to form the tapestry of your life, and your brain can access a great many of these memories on the spur of the moment.

That represents a very efficient system of cataloging information, so no matter how bad you think your memory is, it is a great deal better than you might think. Of course, the memory does fail sometimes. You may have trouble remembering a ten digit number, or even the names and faces of people. But this is more the result of the overload of information that our brains are faced with in these modern times.

The key to a good memory

After all, we have to remember a great deal more things and use our brains in far more complex ways than our ancestors used to. So of course there's some loss of information. The key to a good memory lies in the way our brains work. The center of memory is a portion of the brain called the hippocampus, and it's function is to sort out all the facts that your mind is bombarded with every second of the day, and from these, to choose which facts will actually be stored in the memory pathways of the brain, and which facts will be discarded. So this is the key to why you instantly forget things that you want to remember sometimes.

Remember things better

Remember, the hippocampus is not under your direct control, but functions more or less automatically. This is exactly as it should be. You don't have the time to catalog all the information your brain receives consciously, and that's why the brain evolved this area to automatically sort and catalog information for you. And if it makes mistakes sometimes, and forgets things, there's good news - it's possible to learn ways to 'cue' the hippocampus about things that you really want to remember, and it's even possible to gain a partial control over this area so that you can remember things better at will. And how to do all this is the focus of this guide.

Here you will learn one or two of the best techniques and tricks to help you remember better. But you will also learn one or two facts about how the hippocampus (and the brain) works that will help you to permanently develop a refined, sophisticated and efficient memory that will rarely fail you.

Control over memory 

Remember, your brain has vast capabilities, and it's less a matter of whether or not your brain can remember things, and more a matter of how much control you have over it's memory capabilities. You brain stores information received over the whole course of your life, and then brings up this information more or less at will, and it can certainly store the names and faces of people you meet or that hard-to-remember ten digit phone number. It's only a question of learning how to do this, really, nothing more.

Reasons for developing a good memory 

Now, everyone's reasons for wanting to develop a good memory are different. A student studying for his college degree wants to remember a great deal of information, not necessarily for the rest of his life, but certainly for his examination. A politician might want to develop a memory that can place hundreds of names and faces, a useful tool in his field. And you might just want to be able to remember when you need to meet someone, or even where you last left your pen, your mobile, or your glasses.

 Capacity of your brain

But whether your 'memory goals' are large or small, there are easy to apply ways to harness the memory capacity of your brain, so that it remembers more or less all that you consciously want it to remember. I can't guarantee that a university student will remember everything he or she studies past the examination (isn't there some universal law against students remembering what they study past their examinations?) - but I can guarantee that, after applying these few simple tips and techniques, you will be able to remember the simple little things that are so important - where you keep things, the face of a person you meet everyday, who it would be embarrassing to forget, your way around a neighborhood where you've only been once before - things like this, so important if you can remember them, so disturbing, embarrassing and downright inconvenient if you cannot.

How successful you are at developing your memory

One last bit of advice before we begin - how successful you are at developing your memory is directly proportional to how seriously you take the same, and just how much hard work you're willing to put into practicing the techniques and methods I'm going to teach you here. Yes, if you're willing to work hard, there's not reason why you shouldn't develop and excellent memory - and if you're not willing to work hard at this, then few of these methods will work. So just remember that as you study the five best ways to improve memory.