A powerful memory greatly depends on the overall health and strength of your brain. Whether you are a student reviewing for an exam, an employed professional whose interested in doing everything to be mentally sharp, or a senior who wants to maintain and improve your brain as you age, there are many things that you can do to enhance your memory and mental capabilities.
Follow these easy tips to enhance your memory:
Tip 1: Do not hold back on exercise or sleep
If you treat your body well enough, you may improve your capability to process and recall information. Doing physical exercise increases the oxygen in your brain and lowers the risk for diseases that result to memory loss, like cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Exercise also improves the properties of helpful brain chemicals and helps protect your brain cells.
When you do not get enough sleep, the brain cannot effectively function properly. Critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills are compromised. Even if you are just studying, working or simply just keeping up the many demands of life, lack of sleep is a formula for disaster.
However, sleep is vital to learning and memory in a more essential way. Research shows that sleep is important for consolidating memory, with the crucial memory-enhancing activity happening while in the deep stages of sleep.
Tip 2: Make sure to make time for friends and fun
Whenever you are thinking of ways to enhance your memory, have you considered “serious” activities like going for the New York Times crossword puzzle or learning chess strategy, or go for a more relaxed pastime such as hanging out with your friends or just watching a funny movie? If you are like most people, it is likely the former. However, many studies have shown that a life with many friends and fun have cognitive benefits.
According to research, partaking in a meaningful relationship and having a strong support system are necessary not only to for emotional health, but for the brain health too. A recent study conducted at Harvard School of Public Health had shown that individuals having the most active social life had the slowest rate when it comes to memory decline.
Tip 3: Keep stress, depression, and anxiety in check
Stress is among the brain’s enemies. In time, if unchecked, chronic stress can destroy the cells in the brain and harms the hippocampus, the part of the brain that is responsible in the creation of new memories and the recovery of old ones.
Aside from stress, anxiety, chronic worrying and depression also greatly affect the brain. In fact, few of the symptoms of anxiety and depression include having difficulty in making decisions, recalling things and concentrating. If you are mentally slow due to anxiety or depression, facing the problem can make a huge difference in your cognitive capabilities, which includes memory.
Tip 4: Eat a brain-boosting diet, limit calories and drink green tea
Just like our body, the brain also needs fuel. You may already be familiar with a diet consisting of fruits, healthy oils like olive oil, nuts, fish, whole grains, vegetables and lean meat offer many health benefits, and such diet also enhances memory.
Limit intake on calories and saturated fats. According to research that high saturated fat diets may raise the risk of dementia and may lead to impaired concentration and memory. Moreover, taking in too many calories in later life may also greatly increase the risk of cognitive damage.
Drinking green tea is also good. For green tea has polyphenols, which is a strong antioxidant that helps protect from free radicals that may damage cells in the brain. Aside from many of its benefits, consuming green tea regularly can improve memory and mental attentiveness and slows brain aging.
Tip 5: Give your brain a workout
As you reach adulthood, your brain has already established millions of neural pathways that aids you in processing and remembering info much quickly, perform familiar tasks with little mental effort and solve familiar problems. However, if you stick to these worn paths, you are not providing your brain its needed stimulation to continue developing and growing. So, it is advisable to take a new route when you are going home from work or the grocery store, reading different books or visiting new places during the weekend. The more you exercise your brain, the better you are at processing and remembering information.
