Memory Power

Recently, I had attended a family function and was re-united with relatives after a very long period of time.  Some of the relatives I had only heard about and met for the very first time.

Reunions hold such a power that people just could not help themselves sharing memories of so long with each other.  Most of the people had grew up with each other.  There was a concept of living in joint families in those days.  Today, when everyone had adopted a nuclear family way of living, people now only have memories to keep them connected with each other.

This got me wondering the absolute power of memories and connectivity in humans.  The process of remembering is known as memories.

If you have been following my blogs, you would have already come to know that our brain is the most complex structure in the universe.  Studies and researches are yet to fully understand the functioning of it.  Also, the study of memories is considered to be one of the least understood and most elusive of all subjects.  Different parts of the brain - cortex vertex, motor vertex and language area - are used to create different types of memories! 

At the same time, the elements of memory like words, emotions, sounds and sights, are encoded in their respective areas of origination. And, when a particular type of memory is to be recalled, the neural patterns involved in original encoding are reactivated.  

This makes your memory a group of systems and each of these units play a different role in terms of:

• creation
• storage
• recollection

When our brain processes any information normally, all of the above systems work together to provide a cohesive thought.

So what is memory encoding?

Memory encoding is a biological phenomenon which is deeply rooted in our senses and begins with perceptions.  For example, recall a memory of the a person with whom you are in love with.  Your visual system immediately responds by recalling the physical features such as eye and hair color.  Your auditory senses pick up their tone and pitch of their laughter.  You may notice a perfume or cologne smell.  You may also now recall the touch of their hands. Each of these separate sensations traveled to the part of your brain called hippocampus.  This hippocampus integrates these perceptions as they occur into one, resulting in one single experience - your experience of that specific person.   

Let's talk about the difference between a long-term and short-term memory.

There are 3 stages a memory gets stored in our brain:

1. Sensory stage
2. Short-term memory
3. Long-term memory

Our brain acts as a filter in segregating our memories into the above stages.  All memories pass through the above stages in order for brain to filter and process respective information and store in a specific memory unit.

Sensory memories recall impressions made on your senses.  If someone quickly flashes a picture in front you, you are able to recall the colors and shapes for a brief time.  Sensory memories have a tendency to degrade / fade immediately.

Short-term memories is used when you want to recall a specific object for few seconds to few minutes.  Various studies have proven that at one point of time, you are able to hold upto 4-7 things in your memory.  Short-term memory also fades very quickly.

Both sensory and short-term memory have very limited capacities and operate in the frontal lobe of the brain.

The memories that hold a much deeper meaning to us are stored in the long-term memory storage unit.  The more any information is used and repeated, that gets stored in the long-term memory storage unit.  

What happens when you tend to forget a memory?

All the retrieving of information occurs at an unconscious level to conscious level.  If you have trouble in remembering something, it is not the fault of your entire memory system but an inefficient component of one part of your memory system.

If you have forgotten something, either of the below things would have had happened:

• You may not have registered fully as to where you placed them down to begin with
• You may not be able to retrieve the memory accurately
• You may not have retained what you have registered

Did you know?  We can retain about 60% of our newly learned information for up to 20 minutes!

Therefore, in order to ensure that you are accurately able to retrieve information, you need to ensure that all the 3 stages of memory systems are functioning properly.

Does aging affect retention of memories?

My grandfather is 86 years' old.  He leads a moderately active lifestyle.  He loves reading mathematics school books and reading spiritual books.  He loves his daily walks and recalling names of the birds around our home.  Memory wise, he is pretty much able to recollect about 75-80% of his memories.

Though, memory retrieving is fairly relative from one person to another.  Older generation people will take more time to recall a memory as compared to younger generation however.  This could be due to the fact that they have experienced life more and stored a greater part of it in their brain as memories.  

Studies have also shown that happier people are able to have a better memory as compared with stressed or depressed people.

In order to increase memory span, you can explore:

• engaging yourself in physical activities
• solve crossword puzzles or play strategy games such as chess
• meditation

Physical Activities like Cycling

Meditation & Yoga

Our NLP Master Practitioners and trainers can also help you increase your memory and focus abilities to another level.  Do get in touch with our trainers on +91 76000 18930 for Memory Boost Workshops or email us on info@entrenador.in for further details.

- Article contributed by Entrenador Shruti, NLP Coach & Trainer