Mental Fitness

Are you one of those who believe that mental efficiency declines with age?

As a matter of fact, it doesn’t. There is no age limit for exercising the brain nor do the exercises have any side effects. In fact, the more mental exercising one does, the better are the chances of keeping an active memory tills a ripe old age.

The Good news:

The decline in specific mental abilities, beloved to be associated with ageing such as memory loss, sluggish thinking and blocks in problem solving , are not inevitable, if the brain is frequently excited by new challenges. In a matter study by the NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MENTAL HEALTH in Philadelphia, men tested at age 81 where compared with performance on the same tests they had taken at ages 75 and 70. Researchers reported that the “pattern of decline” of cognitive capabilities generally associated with advanced ageing” was “neither extensive nor consistent”. Other major studies on ageing over the past 52 years (Seaborg and colleagues in Sweden,  Duke University, and the National Institute on Ageing). Support the findings that “mental (and physical) declined with ageing is not inevitable”. Yet we have all seen elderly people who unmistakably experience mental decline, as they grow older. What can be done to preserve (and enhance) mental fitness, as we grow older?

Use It or Lose It?

Not surprisingly, the same advice that we follow to achieve physical fitness applies to mental fitness – “ use it or lose it”. Just as daily weight repetitions in the gym or jogging strengthen certain muscle groups mental exercises will strengthen and enhance cognitive functions over them.

 Monique Le Poncin, founder of the French National Institute for research on the prevention of cerebral ageing, has written a fascinating book called “brain fitness. By identifying the various mental abilities in the human repertoire – perception, long and short term memory and visuo – spatial memory structuralization, logic and verbal abilities – le poncin has “prescribed” an exercise regimen designated to strengthen those areas that tend to become week over the life span. She advocates a technique of cerebral activation, which she calls “brain fitness”. 

+ive ATTITUDE A KEY TO SUCCESS

QUOTES ON POSITIVE ATTITUDE


The most significant change in a person’s life is a change of attitude. Right attitudes produce right actions.


A positive attitude is not a destination.  It is a way of life.
A positive attitude is like a magnet for positive results.
Our life is a reflection of our attitudes

HOW MUCH DO YOU SEE OF AN ICEBERG?

ONLY 10% OF ANY ICEBERG IS VISIBLE. THE REMAINING 90% IS BELOW SEA LEVEL.

ØThe Iceberg phenomena is also applicable on human    beings …

EXAMPLE THE ICEBERG

The memory process

What constitutes the memory process? Just like every other function, memory is a series of things happening one after the other.


There are three fundamental questions related to the memory process.
How are memorizes formatted?
Through the process of “Encoding”.
How are memories retained?
Through the process of “storage”.
How are memories recalled?
Through the process of “retrieval”


The process of remembering can actually be divided into four easy steps:

• Attention and selection.
• Encoding
• Storage
• Retrieval

Attention and selection:
It has already been established that attention plays a very important role in memory. In fact, the frost process of memory is attention. There is much more information in your environment that you can process at any one time. All our sources and all this needs to be processed. At any given time, our brain is exposed to hundreds of messages that need its attention. But it can’t process al these messages at the same time.
Encoding:
Once something is attended to, it must be encoded to be remembered. Basically, encoding refers to translating incoming information into a mental representation that can be stored in memory.
You can encode the same information in a number of different ways. For example: you can encode information according to its sound, what it looks like or what it means.
Storage:
Storage is the process of holding information in your memory. A distinction is often made between short-term and long-term memory. Short-term memory is just that, brief and transient. Think about looking up a new phone number in the phone book and making a call. You may remember it long enough to make the call, but do not recall it later. This is your short-term memory, which can hold a small amount of information for a short period of time. Once you stop attending to the number, perhaps after you make the call and move on to the another task, you are likely to forget it. In order to remember the number of a longer period of time (and after attending to other things), you would need to store it in your long-term memory.
Retrieval:
In terms of memory improvement, it can help to understand how the retrieval process relates to encoding and storage. Conceder the relationship between retrieval and encoding.  If you have encoded something visually, but are trying to retrieve it acoustically, you will have difficulty remembering it. Like encoding, information can be retrieved through visualizing it, thinking about the meaning or imagining the sound etc.,
                       Tip --> Attention --> Encoding --> Storage --> Retrieval.


These are the steps of memory discussed thus far. First, you select the information to which you will attend. You then encode the information for storage (where it can be practiced and processed more deeply). Later, when needed, information is retrieved by using a search strategy that parallels how the information was encoded and stored.

Suggestions to avoid

How do you avoid overconfidence when it comes to safety matters? Here are some suggestions:

• Stay aware of the hazards. Remain alert and focus on doing the job safely.

• Follow the recommended safe work practices at all times. Do not take short cuts.

• Wear your Personal Protective Equipment -- every time.

• Pay attention during safety meetings. You may have heard it all before, but a reminder never hurts.

•As an experienced worker, you have a responsibility to set a good example for newcomers.

•Do things the safe way, because someone may be watching and learning from you.

•Never let overconfidence compromise your safety.

How Can One Increase The Observation Power?

To be able to observe better, you need to be attentive and focused. If you are not attentive, you can’t be observed and if you are not observant you can’t get to have a good memory. There are various ways to strengthen the observation. You can begin playing the memory games that are footing in the markets these days. The games like “jigsaw puzzles” and “spot the differences” are also very effective in increasing the power of observation.

Give yourself some simple observation takes every day. For instance, if you are going for a party, observe the dresses worn by five people. When you return home, try to recapitulate the details. Increase the number to ten, after a few days. Similarly, while driving, when you halt at the traffic signal you can try to observe the vehicles around you. Note the kind of vehicle the make and the color. Try and recall these when you reach office. While shopping the detergents try to observe how many detergent brands are available in that super market, what is the difference in the package, price, etc., these exercise will horn up your observation in a few weeks.

The process of remembering

At this stage, you may well ask – “Alright, I have realized the importance of remembering. I have also learnt the need to uncluttered the mind. But how can I remember things?”

The first step towards improving your recall system is to observe. The stronger the observation better memory.  Most of us do not attach enough importance to the power if observation. As a result we often overlook details while observing. A simple test of your observation would be to try and recall specifics after you have watched the movie. For instance, try to remember the dress worn by the heroin while singing a specific song or the locale that went in the background.

You will find that you will not able to recall these details initially, but as you hone up your power of observation, you will be able to remember the minutest of the details. The reason for this change is very simple. You have been able to improve your power of remembering because you have made your observation keener.

Our forefathers had a much better memory than we do. Since there were no written scriptures, much of the text was passed from generation to generation through oral communication. For this, the learned few had to memories the entire lot of scriptures thought the rote method. It was much later that writing methods were discovered and the ancient wisdom and scriptures were put in writing.

No doubt that the observation power of the people in the ancient times was also keen since they had to remember everything without being able to put it in writing.

Why do we forget?

Can you recall your passport number?

I bet you can’t. Simply, because it is not used every day. You will have to make a big effort to seek it out from the bottom of the stack of information that is stored in your brain. To be remembered easily, information needs to be organized and meaningful, and needs to come to us at a slow pace so as to process it.

The secret of most of annoying instances of forgetting is that you do not take the trouble to connect new information with some fact you already know. Isolated facts drop out of the memory quickly, but if you file new knowledge in relation to something already established in your mind, you will retain it and be able to refer to it whenever you need it. It is simply a matter of making special use of your power of association, which is the beginning of all learning processes.

In mental terms, the more you associate a fact with other stored information in toyr mind, the better your memory can retain it. Each of its associates becomes a hook on which the new information hangs. Association is making mental hook from which you may fish facts out of your mind, as you require them. The mental filing system will provide the mental hooks upon which to hang, or file, anything you want to remember. Certain selected words, called KEY WORDS, are the mental hooks in your filing system, Each one of these represents a vivid image.

Let us see what reasons the scientists have attributes to the habit of forgetting. The scientific theory is that people forget more at times passes. This makes sense, I can recall the dress I wore in the morning quit easily, but I take time in remembering the dress I wore yeaterday morning. And if you ask me what I was wearing last Sunday morning, I will have a little problem recalling the dress.

According to the scientist, we forget things because of certain processes. These processes are:

• ü  Interference
• ü  Retrieval failure
• ü  Motivated Forgetting
• ü  Constructive Process

I think we should understand what these terms are all about so that we don’t get confuced about them when someone tries to use them to impress. Since we will be spending quite some times and energy wanting and trying to improve memory, we might as well as do a thorough job.

Remember the Positive and Forget the Negative

The mind has an amazing capacity. In fact, there are no limits to its power. The power of mind can be extended to a limitless extent. It is said that Locus Scorpio could remember the names of all the people who lived in Rome during his time. There are teachers who knows the names of all the children in the class and even those not in their class. Imagine remembering the names of a few hundred children studying in various classes. If a teacher can remember hundreds of names can’t you remember an equivalent number!

Remembering the relevant bits of information is necessary but it is neither advisable nor possible to retain each and every pieces of information that our brain receives during our lifetime.

So what does one do?

We simply remove the ones that are not relevant and retain the ones that are useful.

We know that we cannot possibly neither remember nor want to remember everything. To make our memories serve us intelligently, we have to be able to choose the things we want to remember and concentrate on developing selective type of memory. It’s worth remembering tow fundamental rules.

ü  Everyone has greater power of memory than he images.

ü  Although intensive training products great improvement in memory, training and does not develop the general faculty of memory bust simply increases the particular kind of memory job that is practices.

So, to develop your memory in order to increase your personal efficency you must first choose the kind of remembering on which you want to concentrate. IF you learn to memories poetry effectively, our friends may conceder you more cultured and you may get extra enjoyment out of life, but it will not help you remember the grocery list.

To help you decide what kind of memory you want to cultivate, you must decide the kind of things that you need to remember and concentrate on them.

Why should we try to recall unpleasant little episodes, which prey on our minds? Why should we torture ourselves with the tragic incidents that happened in our lives? Why not clear the junk to accommodate more useful information?

The mind is like a endless shelf. We are constantly heaping information on it, just like we stack clothes in the cupboard. What happens when we need a specific dress that we want to wear for the special party in the evening? We spend a whole lot of time, searching for the specific dress amidst the chaotic clutter. Similarly, the mind, which is heaped with a whole lot of irrelevant and useless information, takes time to dreg up the necessary information. Sometimes it even fails to retrieve the useful stuff.

Theory of Use and Disuse

An average human being looses an average of 1, 00,000 brain cells every day due to disuse. Unlike the other cells of our body, the brain cells do not multiply. Any cells that are damaged or not used simply degenerated. By the age of 35 a human being losses over 1,000 nerve cells a day.
The lesser a person uses his brain, the worse his memory becomes. People get mentally  out of shape when they stop challenging their minds. This happens when they opt for habitual solutions rather than purposeful thoughts, or if they confine there thinking to a small range of interests. Remember that mental fitness – your ability to concentrate, to reason, to visualize, to imagine, to make decisions, to solve problems and to think creativity depends greatly on how well and how often you exercise your mind. You need to exercise all of your mental muscles in order to keep yourself mentally fit. Just like several body muscles work together to create physical movement, several mental muscles work together to create clear purposeful thinking.

Selective Memory

Have you noticed how you can recall certain events and things in lucid details, while some of the more important happenings may simply escape your memory? For instance, you may be able to remember the face of a business client, introduced just a couple of days back, and eludes you. You need to check the visiting card to remember his name, you may distinctly recall one particular holiday of your childhood, while a more recent one doesn’t pop up so easily in your mind.

Another example if the fact that most of us can remember evens the words yes by the person during a quarrel, years after the incident. We can remember the specific instances when someone rebuked us, insulted us or hurt us. We can usually remember these incidents because we want to remember them. We feel emotionally connected to those incidents. We love remembering the tragic times because we want to wallow in self-pity. We love recalling each and every movement of the special incident when we were given a special honor. These are just some of the examples of super memory and super recall.

Now the question remains that if we can do it for some incidents and events, why can’t we do it for all the events and incidents.

What is the reason for such laps? Why do we recall selectively? The reason is quit simple really. We tend to forget a person or an event just because we don’t make enough effort to remember them. This should convince you that if you can recall one incident, you could recall many others. This should also make you realize that we all are cap pale of remembering things if we make adequate efforts to remember them.

How does memory work?

Psychologists have classified the stages of memory processes in three main categories. they call them - sensory memory, working memory, short term and long-term memory.

Sensory memory is a very transient type of memory that works only as long as experience is present. For example, if you are looking for a bird, you just remember it as long as it is in front of you. The time it takes off, you do not want to remember what he looked like unless they have filed the information away in your short term memory. In fact, sensory memory holds as long as yourself is one thing. If you feel an object, smell or feel something, that's all there in the sensory memory for a very short time while your senses are active.

The short-term memory, on the other hand, can help you recall a little longer, in fact, as long as you keep thinking about it. If the phone number you are stopped repeatedly without a break until you write, or the image of the bird, it will remain available as long as you feel active. If not, it was cleared within 20 seconds. To note, the brain has to move in support of long-term memory.

How does long-term memory? He was the pillar of memory and can contain an unlimited number of information, which can vary from minutes to the ancient life time. the long-term memory is like a big hard drive of a supercomputer which can be unlimited information stored for a lifetime. It is the memory that we have to hone, polish and activate.

Everything seems very technical and complicated, but just think in terms of storage towers. Take the example of a mirror. You can not keep the ice from melting beyond a few minutes, if you do not keep in the refrigerator. Sensory memory is like ice cream is kept out. If you keep ice cream in the refrigerator, it will remain a semi-formed and which is the short-term memory. Now put the ice cream in the freezer and it will harden to a large extent. Even if you go out and keep it off, it will take some time to melt. This is the long-term memory. Pretty simple, is not it?

Connecting to the brain and memory:

No one is born with a bad memory. As humans, we have provided a surprisingly strong brain. And God is not partial to any person in making this extraordinary gift. We, however, laugh often distracted people or people with little memory and tease them by saying - ". You are standing at the end of the queue when God was distributing brains"

It is interesting to learn about the brain called the most fantastic body that governed our actions and thinking. Super master controller, much like the remote you use to surf TV channels. The brain is constantly bombarded with information relayed by the senses.Enonnous Just imagine the work he has to deal with all this information ever be passed on to them.

How does it handle all the traffic information?

The amount of information that floods the brain is amazing. The brain has an unenviable job of sifting the pieces do not matter and selection on important issues that should be stored. Memory is just one facet of the multiple functions of the brain.

Because this book deals with memory, we only discuss this aspect of brain function. The human brain is a complex and sophisticated organ. It consists of billions of cells that will continue to analyze, store and retrieve information. No computer can match the well organized and a healthy brain. An interesting fact about the brain is that although only 2 percent of total body weight, it uses about 20 percent of oxygen used by the whole body when it is rest. The brain can not go without oxygen for more than 3-5 minutes without causing serious damage to him.

The most striking feature of the brain is the backup system. It stores each with a different memory space. The memory system works surprisingly UN. Sometimes you'll see that a certain smell brings back memories of your childhood or a visit to a mountain holiday resort triggered a memory of the little hill station to another. At other times, you can spend hours trying to remember someone's name without success, than to suddenly remember names when you talk to someone or something else.

What is memory?

What is memory - How does memory work?


Memory brain power to recall any stored information. It is the power to recall something you learned or experienced. Memory is important because without memory, there is no learning. We forget things shortly after the study. We could not remember the experience either.

The effectiveness of the recall system is what makes the memory of your good or bad.As such, there's nothing like a good memory and a bad memory. It is only the question of training your brain to remember effectively. Memory is a process that must be learned, such as walking, talking, eating, recognize colors, to distinguish sounds and tell time. You learn things when you were a kid, and now you can perform effortlessly, without even being aware of the mental processes involved. You can learn the process of using your memory as the background, and when you do, you have a hundred times the power of knowledge and experience than you have now.

Anyone can sharpen memory formation. To make decisions and solve problems, we must refer to past experience. To view the previous experience, we should remember.No one really likes to waste time re-learning. Therefore, it is important to improve our memory. Cicero because these days, men have developed methods to improve memory. The fundamentals remain the same, only changes to keep pace with the changing times.