Normally it is found
that the majority of students fail to secure expected marks or grades despite
putting in desired efforts. During personal counselling sessions, many students
ask me the reasons for this mis-match. By going deep into the reason of this
problem and by talking openly with students, one common reason which comes to
the fore is the memory problem. Undeniably, the students study their subjects,
but even after a few days they can’t remember fully or partly what they had
read. Yes, you too can find in the media more than one product, book or
prescription for improving the memory power of one and all. Isn’t it? However,
it is very easy for everyone to improve their memory power by following a few
easy and doable prescriptions. Let us discuss.
Early
to bed and early to rise: Get up early
and start the day with a positive note. Make your body hydrated by drinking
lukewarm water and then complete your washroom engagements. Now take up reading
or writing tasks for 1-2 hours as a matter of habit. Various medical research
say that early morning engagements stay well in our memory due to more than one
reason - we feel fresh and energetic; the atmosphere is comparatively clean,
oxygen level is better etc., It is also true that after a better start in the
morning, we feel good and happy. As such, it has a definite bearing on memory
power and confidence that in turn reflects in our day’s performance. The habit
of late-night study/engagement is found to affect not only our memory badly, but also our
overall health. So, it is better to sleep early. Good nightly sleep for 7-8
hours plays a significant role in improving our memory power. To say, the
famous saying that early to bed and early to rise makes a person healthy,
wealthy and wise is worth practicing.
Stay
mentally & physically active: It
is all knowing that the blood flow to our brain improves by doing regular
exercise – walking, jogging, running, playing, cycling, dancing, yoga and gym
activity. Interestingly, it helps grow the hippocampus, the
seahorse-shaped structure located in our brain, that plays an important role in
learning, managing spatial navigation and memory consolidation. By regular and
conscious practice of pranayama and meditation, it becomes easy to keep us
mentally healthy – necessary to improve our focus and memory.
Take
brain-healthy food: In order to
improve our brain health and thereby our memory, it is desirable to include
brain-healthy food items such as leafy and green vegetables, seasonal fruits,
whole grains, nuts, berries etc., Yes, keeping ourselves away from oily, junk,
packaged, preserved and frozen food is definitely better. To say, eating fresh
and seasonal food items mindfully and joyfully makes a positive impact.
Just
study at study time: Particularly for
students, it is a must to focus only on studies at study time. So, first think
about the selected chapter for two-three minutes so as to prepare your mind to
focus on that. Then go through it sincerely to understand the matter. Just remain
seated for a few minutes after finishing the task. After an hour or two, try to
write down the salient points of what you just read and understood. At times it
happens that after the first round of reading, you may fail to understand and
recall the contents fully. But don’t think of quitting, presuming that the
chapter is very difficult to understand. Instead of this, try again and again
to read it with firmer resolve and focus until you understand and write it down
well. However, there is no guarantee that whatever you read, understood and
wrote down well will always stay in your memory. Hence, it is better to follow
the spaced repetition process of 1-2-3-7 to review the actual status after one
day, two days, three days and seven days of your first successful session of
reading-understanding-writing. To say, always keep in mind that practice makes
a person perfect.
Always
try to learn something new: The capacity of
our mind is immense, but sadly we fail to utilise it suitably and optimally.
Normally, we like to stay in our comfort zone and are inertia-driven. As such,
we fail to learn many new things. It is found that the more we engage our mind
to learn new things, the more our mind remains active which ultimately helps
improve our memory power. We may learn to play chess or a musical instrument;
or solve crossword puzzles or take up a new task for that matter. Just try this
and reap the benefits.
As always, I'm keen to know what you think on this subject. Hence, I request you to post your comments to share your valuable opinion. (hellomilansinha@gmail.com)
# Published in my Sunday Column of "Morning India" daily. # Click here to enjoy my Blog in Hindi, "Chalte, Chalte" (चलते, चलते)
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