Rosemary increases memory by between 60-75%. This is what and why ancient Greeks wore them in their hair. Rosemary essential oil will work also. The main chemical responsible is 1,8-cineole, which inhibits the breakdown of acetylcholine in the brain and free radical damage. It can also be used for migraines, mild painkillers, and even digestive problems.
Chunking is when you group a bunch of information into related groups to make it easier to remember. Try this. Look at the following word for only five seconds, then chunk it in a way that will help you remember it. Ready? Go: eubqelqrauu. Now look away. Don’t look back. Write the whole thing down from memory. Now you can look. Did you get the random letters correct? What does it spell? Try another one: terrupereenn. Look away, then right it down.
Statistics: The average adult spends 16 hours per year looking for keys because they can’t remember where they put them. *Readers’ Digest.
There are three very different kinds of memory—visual, verbal, and kinesthetic.
Pegging, or Tagging is a method by which we connect another image or word to the item to be remembered. We could use letters, images, or songs. Remember the order of operations in math? Bomdas (or Bedmas). Using letters, we have Brackets, Operations, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction (or Brackets, Exponents, Division, Multiplication, Addition, Subtraction).
We could use images. When you put your keys on the table, think of a truck plowing through your wall into the room with the table. Now you won’t forget that!
We could use a song. Using the tune of Yankee Doodle, or something else, sing: “I put my keys on the table in my kitchen. If a truck should run amok that wouldn't be very bitchin’.” We need them to be unique, perhaps disturbing, rhyming, and active.
If you are memorizing a tray full of objects such as a coin, a pin, dice, and a toy, you could peg each object to another object with the same first letter, but they run together to form as sentence, such as: a Copper Playful Dog Towel (coin-pin-dice-toy).
Reading Retention: If you need/want to retain more of a book you are reading, there are some tricks to help. First skim through the chapter really fast reading headings, bold print, summaries, and pre-read questions if you have them to know what you’re looking out for. Highlight important text. Mark notes in the margins or in a notebook. Understand what you’re reading instead of memorizing it. Make an outline. Many books will start with the main points (or end on it), then go into more detail after.
Remembering words can be made easier if you understand the etymology of a word, what prefixes mean, the roots, and what suffixes mean. For difficult words, use sound alike, but strange sentences. Platypus could be, “Pat, he pushed the animal off the cliff.” You could also use a crazy picture. For “endocrine”, you could think of a picture of a motorcycle doing an endo (balancing on his front tire), and an onlooker cringing.
Items get stored in short term memory first, then put into long term while you sleep with a process called memory consolidation. Your brain filters out unimportant information, so make your associations unusual! Science has shown that if you play sounds related to what you want to remember while you sleep, you will significantly increase the ability to transfer those specific short term memories to long term memories.
The mnemonic alphabet is used to remember numbers. At first, it may seem daunting, but it’s truly amazing. Here it is:
|
1 = T, D |
6 = J, soft G, CH, SH |
|
2 = N |
7 = K, hard C, Hard G, Q |
|
3 = M |
8 = F, V, PH |
|
4 = R |
9 = P, B |
|
5 = L |
0 = Z, soft C, S |
This method was developed by Harry Lorayne. The reasoning, if it helps, is because T has a single down stroke and D sounds like it. N has 2 down strokes. M has 3 down strokes. 4 is dominated by the R sound. 50 is L in Roman numerals, and if you hold up five fingers, your index finger and thumb form an L. 6 is similar to a backward J, and the other letters are formed the same way with the tongue. 7 looks like two sevens, with one upside down and one backwards. 8 is similar to a cursive lowercase f, and the other letters are formed the same way with the tongue. 9 looks like a P in a mirror, and B is formed the same way with the mouth. 0 starts with Z and the other letters are formed the same way with the mouth. Now you just add vowels in between where you see fit to have the letters form words and sentences. You could add extra consonants if required, but keep them lowercase to tell them apart.
This phone number would then be 227-9984 = NNKPBFR = NoN KeeP BeFoRe.
There is an alternate method, if you find that one not good enough for you. It is called the Peg Word System and uses words associated with the letters in the previous method:
|
1. Tie |
6. Shoe |
|
2. Noah |
7. Cow |
|
3. Ma |
8. Ivy |
|
4. Rye |
9. Bee |
|
5. Law |
10. Toes |
You can, of course, change the words, if you see fit, and if you need to, you can add words that go much higher in number, say, up to 100, if you wish.
There is also a rhyming peg word system:
|
1. Gun |
6. Trick |
|
2. Shoe |
7. Heaven |
|
3. Tree |
8. Bait |
|
4. Door |
9. Wine |
|
5. Hive |
10. Pen |
You can even create your own.
Try the rhyming peg word system now. Have a buddy name 10 random objects and attach them to a number using the rhyming word for the number. Write them down, even. So 1 could be gun, and if box was the random item to remember, associate the gun and the box, maybe the gun is in the box all covered in blood. The stranger, the better. Once you get to ten, turn the paper over and have your friends call out the numbers 1 to 10 in random order and you should remember the rhyme word, then the strange association to the object to be remembered! In time and with practice, increase the number of objects.
Names. How to remember someone’s name? Think like a caricaturist. Repeat their names while looking directly at them and exaggerate some feature of their face that already stands out. Alternately, you can rhyme their name with something. Tommy Talker. Jim Nasium. Justin Case. Ben Dover. Clara Clear. Denise Demise. Or you can create a scenario or picture around their name. Michael now become my childhood idol, Michael Jackson. Or Greg becomes a bird pecking a worm out of the ground, like Gregory Peck. You could also take someone’s name and associate the first and last name with someone famous. Such as taking the name John Turner and thinking of him with John Lennon and Tina Turner.
The human race is just forgetful, so nothing beats writing it down. Don’t wait. Don’t say you will right it down later because you will also forget to write down what you were supposed to remember.
Boredom and learning are opposite sides of the same coin. If you’re bored, you won’t learn, and if you’re learning, you aren’t bored.
People with photographic memory are so good, they can even identify people who are wearing disguises. Photographic memory is not a skill you are born with. It is learned and everyone can learn it.
How can we benefit from memorization skills? Remembering a car or person that is following you. Remembering critical information or survival skills that could save your life.
Memory Palace technique, 6 steps. 1. Picture your childhood home or another home that you know like the back of your hand. 2. Start at the front door and walk a path through your house that leads to every room and eventually back to your front door again. 3. Identify the details you want to remember. 4. The idea is to place the details you need to remember along that route through your house in order, at different spots. 5. Add something unusual to make it stand out, like a strange colour or texture. 6. Re-walk the path and stop at each item’s location.
False Memory happens to most of us where we remember things that didn’t happen and that wasn’t true. When trying to remember a group of words that are related, your memory will insert more related words.
During the day, if I notice something in the house that needs to be repaired, I’ll snap a picture of it with my phone, even if I am merely walking by the problem. My photos back up to my computer and as I sort them, I see it and remember it and then write it down on the “to do” list. I take pictures when I am out and about the same way to remember things. At night, you should keep a notebook and pen beside your bed if you get inspiration for something and need to remember it. If you must, when you think of something you need to remember, throw something toward your door. When you wake and see it, you will remember why you threw it and what it was supposed to remind you of.
Try to teach a process you have tried to remember. Teaching will increase your ability to remember it by a factor of 4, even if you just mock teach yourself out loud with nobody present.
Remembering people’s faces. Unless someone has a disfiguration or is extremely ugly, we tend to categorize people’s faces as normal.
Technology has negatively impacted our ability to be alert, aware, remember, and look for sign. We have GPSs now, and fish finders, and weather stations, radio reports, spell checkers, contact book for phone numbers, etc.
Most people don’t remember faces because they are fixated on the weapon or danger of an attacker. The fight or flight response will rob your brain of blood.
We need to be concerned with things in order of importance based on how easy they can be changed:
1. Things that cannot be changed. (race, sex, age, head shape, face bones)
2. Things that can be changed only with time, effort, or expense. (sex, fat, hair growth)
3. Things that can be changed easily and cheaply. (hair removal/colour/style, clothes,
4. Things that can be thrown away completely. (bandages, jewellery, glasses/hats, scarves/bandanas, weapons, briefcases)
5. Disguises
The nine most common head shapes are narrow oval, oval, moon, heart, triangular, bullet, egg, squared, and rectangular.
Note the differences between men and women, as posing as the opposite sex is common:
A – The male has a cleft chin; the female does not.
B – The male has a deep recess in the jaw; the female does not.
C – The male has a double brow with a depression between them; the female does not.
Sometimes, these are not always visible, and are hard to distinguish in certain races.
Watch hairline shapes:
Other things to try to identify are the filtrum (the lines and space under the nose), the zygotic arch (top of cheek bones), eye details (such as distance, colour, bags, lids, etc), lip shape, nose shape, and ears (such as tight, floppy, or cauliflower), neck size, and skin texture (to help identify lines of work).
Remember to try to ignore distracters and look past them. Distracters could be hats, glasses, scarves, high collars, anything that covers the true head and face details.
Hairstyles can make someone appear shorter or taller than they really are. Beards can hide facial details or defects.
Watch some of these videos on YouTube below.
For the entire course, get it HERE.
Visit our website at divinewarriorninjutsu.com