Everyone has seen movies or read books where a character has the uncanny ability to remember everything he or she sees down to the finest detail. These fictional characters have photographic memories, the envy of all who observe their talent. The question that arises, though, is how do you develop a photographic memory yourself? Is it something that’s even possible?
We know that we use only a small fraction of our brain’s full potential. We also don’t understand much of how the brain works, although research gives us more insight every year. Whether or not you will have the ability to just look at a page from a phone book and remember names and numbers years later, there are things that you can do right now to beef up your memory skills and enhance your brainpower.
Be Discerning: There’s a fine line that you need to learn to walk in order to improve your ability to memorize. On the one hand, you need to be observant, noticing and processing all of the details necessary to commit the facts to your brain. On the other hand, you also need to be somewhat discerning with what you loading into your mind. Try to filter out extraneous information so as to reduce the workload on your brain in order to make storing and recalling more efficient.
Visual Association: The use of visual association has been around for centuries and involves associating information that you are learning with objects that you picture in your mind. Some people believe that visual association is relatively a new technique, which is not true. The basic principle behind visual association is to connect unique and unrelated topics with images, and thus recollect these topics by the images associated with them.
Improving Focus: Improving focus is very important when it comes to approaching the concept of a photographic memory for yourself. Some of the oldest yet most effective techniques to improve anyone’s focus is meditation and yoga. If you have problems in concentrating, these are two effective techniques that will dramatically improve your ability to concentrate. Without being able to filter out distractions, it can make it quite difficult for you to learn new information. Moving to a quiet, isolated area and playing classical music in the background are two easy steps to create an ambience amenable to study.
Puzzle Games: Solving puzzles and playing games are not only great exercises for the mind, but they also allow you to engage others socially, which we know has a positive impact on cognitive function. There are many ways to improve your memory by playing puzzle games. You can play with your friends and challenge yourself by competing with others, finding tougher opponents to stretch your skills. Another idea is to play a game or solve a puzzle with an eye toward completing your goal in as short a time frame as possible. There are many games and puzzles out there that can hone your memory and problem-solving abilities.
These techniques are very easy to follow and you don’t need a whole lot of resources to invest in. Taking the time to invest in improving your recall abilities is a worthwhile endeavor. Even if you may not achieve the fabled photographic memory, you can still improve a skill which will benefit you greatly both personally and professionally.
Kevin Green has studied memory and brain function for years and has created a resource to help people with memory training at http://www.LearnToImproveYourMemory.com. Sign up to receive a free 10 part mini-course that covers increasing concentration, memorizing techniques, exercises for brain enhancement, and more.
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