I walked into the kitchen to get.....to get......ummmmm....I know I came in here for a reason.
Or worse, you see a friend walking up to you and their name is....ummmmm....?
Like many of you, our car keys get misplaced, we know we paid that bill, we know that person's name, we know what we came into this room for, it is right on the tip of our tongue, but somehow it escapes us.
I believe that losing my dad with short term memory loss was a gift. It set me on a mission to figure out how to improve my memory.
Looking at our day as a whole, we forget billions of things. Are you shocked? I was. Do you remember feeling the floor as you got out of bed? Do you remember the toothbrush, cleaning each tooth? And the list goes on. It is fascinating to think about the huge amount of things we forget every single day. How do we choose what to remember?
Since I have been on this mission, my memory has improved. Here are the things that have helped the memory get stronger:
1. Staying focused in the moment. The more mindfulness becomes a practice, the better the memory becomes. We stop thinking about the past, thinking about what needs to be done, and we just immerse in the now and it is surprising that people's names pop up in our mind, we remember why we walked into the room, we know where we set out keys down because there was intention behind it.
2. Cutting out toxic foods and adding nutrition. This is different for everyone but I know for me, sugar and flour are big brain fog contributors and I was not getting the right nutrition. I didn't know this all caused brain fog but I do now. In fact, I didn't even know I was in a fog until it cleared. My Sudoku times improved 60% and it is so cool to have an actual measurement!
3. My favorite is memory games! There are so many games out there to improve memory. I am still looking into these but so far, I know they are helping me to remember more things in each day, well at least the important things.
We can all get a little bit healthier, practice a little more mindfulness, and get better with age, if we want to. I don't know if you have ever seen anyone lose their memory as they aged but it was one of the most painful things I have seen for them. My dad knew that he should know things but didn't. The anger and frustration was torture for him, from the inside.
If you would like to explore a little more about this, remember to click this link to get my 7 Days to Mindfulness!
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