Memory loss coming on!
One of my followers on Twitter posted this tweet and I could understand just how he felt! Sometimes life’s just like that - after a weekend partying, hitting the books for exams, going through a stressful relationship break up or just too much of everything!
I’ve seen lots of Twitter jokes about memory loss – like this one: Memory loss runs in my family – um, do I have a family? Or
When my doctor knew I had memory loss, she made me pay in advance.
But it isn’t really a joke because if your memory is being affected so much tht you are fogetting things, then the what is causing the stress needs to be taken seriously.
What are the warning signs of stress?
Rapid breathing, increased heart rate, withdrawal, headaches, chain smoking, chest pains, insomnia, ulcers, and reduced sex drive. These symptoms often lead to thoughts and feelings of despair or panic (I’m doomed, I’ll never succeed, I’m useless). And of course, stress can mean dollars lost, projects delayed, poor morale, arguments with friends, poor heath, and failure in your job. So, although the jokes are a bit of fun, stress bad enough to cause memory loss is far from a joke.
I’ve just moved house and taken up a new job so I’ve been feeling a bit stressed lately. How can I tell? I put out my mobile to be sure to take it to work – then left it behind on the table where I placed it so carefully. I wake up in the middle of the night with a To Do list rolling round in my head. I spend minutes searching for an important paper that is actually sitting on the desk where I placed it. Silly things that wouldn’t happen if I was thinking straight, and not stressed
There are many natural stressors in our lives, both positive and negative. A constant barrage of noise, being fired, facing fierce competition, the death of someone close or divorce cause a lot of stress for us. So do moving, starting a new job, making a large purchase, going on holiday, marriage…any of these circumstances evoke our emotions . while some are joyful, often the opposite is the case, causing worry, grief, or depression. All stressors cause tension and tension is the enemy of memory.
Time honored ways of reducing stress include:
- Relaxation: When anxious, find a friend, a book, or learn relaxation techniques. This can take the form of breathing exercises, a gradual relaxation of the body, or an imaging process. At first the mind technique you choose may take half an hour to ‘bring you down’, but once you become adept all it need is ten seconds or so.
- Time Management: Manage your phone calls and interruptions. Make a daily plan: this helps accomplish critical or urgent jobs, the ones that create the most stress and take the highest toll on memory. The simpler the management plan, the better
- Cut yourself some slack: Tell yourself that mistakes happen and the world hasn’t ended and that there is usually no one clear right and wrong way to do things, and so on.
- Assert yourself in a tactful, flexible way which makes your needs and wants known but does not casue agression and anger. Try using statements with “I believe…” or “I would like to try…” rather than “you…” This negotiating approach is much less stressful and more likely to be successful.
- Problem solving. Evaluate many possible solutions, then decide and implement the one that seems best. This frees your thinking and memory capacity.
- Risk-taking. Be willing to be embarrassed and non-traditional. Have fun. The discomfort of opening yourself up will gradually fade as you experiment by taking risks. As life becomes more satisfying, you can be more relaxed about the way your life is progressing; your stress will lessen, and your memory will improve.
If you feel stress coming on, take 90 seconds to:
1. STOP. Abandon what you are doing
2. RELAX. Free your mind of distractions
3. THINK. Identify your irrational and panicky thoughts and replace them with positive statements.
4. RISK. Break the routine; try something new.
——————————————————
Please feel free to reproduce this article on your website. See our article reproduction policy for details. In brief, all you need to do is reproduce the article above and add the following credit footer including the links unaltered and then email us at brainandmemoryfoundation@gmail.com to let us know where you’re reproducing it because we’ll be excited to see it on your site! Please let us know if we can help in any other way. We want to get the word out.
——————————————————
This article was reproduced with permission of its author Gillian Eadie, founder of the Brain and Memory Foundation. Gillian is an award-winning educator with more than 20 years as a principal at several prestigious private schools and is a Churchill Fellow. For more free help and personal advice on the human brain, sleep, brain food and improving your memory, please visit the Brain and Memory Foundation.
Don’t you hate that? You are in the middle of a sales presentation, or telling a funny story and suddenly, you can’t think of what comes next! Try as you might, the mind’s gone blank and you have no idea how to finish.
It happened to me in a very public way many years ago, and I can still remember the occasion now. I was a competitive dancer and I had practiced and practiced a spectacular new step. I couldn’t wait to perform it as one of a series of six different dance movements.
All was going well until I came to the point where the new step was to be performed and I stopped. My mind was a blank. You see, I’d practiced the step on its own and not in sequence, so under the pressure of competition, my memory couldn’t cope.
Pressure on your memory comes from many quarters: when you’re tense, afraid or in panic; when you’re under pressure, multi-tasking or feel angry, emotionally charged or under threat. Feelings of loneliness, insecurity or confusion can all lead to mental blocks and, in the midst of the ever-increasing pace of our technological world, these blank moments occur in even the youngest of adults. What is usually happening is that the sustained release of adrenalin actually decreases the efficiency of essential brain connections required for you to remember well. Your memory is a complex and amazing set of reactions and processes which work best when you are not stressed and operating in ‘normal’ mode.
So what can be done to clear a mental block?
Firstly, it’s important to check that there is nothing physical causing the condition, particularly if it is happening more frequently than twice a week. Stress , if sustained over a long period of time, can cause mental blocks, so honestly evaluate how you rate on a stress questionnaire.
Relaxation is a key factor in clearing mental blocks, so take a few deep breaths and exhale slowly. Rotate your shoulders and loosely shake your arms and hands to relieve tension. Don’t panic – if you are in a public situation, make a humorous comment and move on. Find another way to continue and, chances are, the lost thought will pop back into your mind seconds later.
Thinking about the task you were undertaking in a different way will sometimes clear the block, also. Reframing your thinking and looking at other possibilities will also give you new brain connections to approach the task.
A famous problem was solved when the makers of hotel elevators tried to overcome the many complaints they received about the slowness of even their newest elevators. After spending a lot of time analyzing the machinery and the physical impact on patrons of increased elevator speeds, some clever thinkers redefined the problem. Why did hotel guests complain? Why did the lifts seems so slow? Answer: Because they had nothing to do while they were waiting! When visible screens indicated the progress of the elevator, and mirrors were installed inside and outside the elevators, the complaints ceased.
Trust your brain – given the right conditions, your brain will remember. If you can control the factors surrounding you at the time, mental blocks will be a thing of the past. Or, if they occur, you know what to do. Relax, laugh, reframe and respond.
For more information, read Keep that Boomer Brain Growing
——————————————————
Please feel free to reproduce this article on your website. See our article reproduction policy for details. In brief, all you need to do is reproduce the article above and add the following credit footer including the links unaltered and then email us at brainandmemoryfoundation@gmail.com to let us know where you’re reproducing it because we’ll be excited to see it on your site! Please let us know if we can help in any other way. We want to get the word out.
——————————————————
This article was reproduced with permission of its author Gillian Eadie, founder of the Brain and Memory Foundation. Gillian is an award-winning educator with more than 20 years as a principal at several prestigious private schools and is a Churchill Fellow. For more free help and personal advice on How Stress Affects the Human Brain link to this article. You’ll find more about memory loss and improving your memory when you visit the http://brainandmemoryfoundation.org
Avoid multi-tasking. It leads to stress and memory loss.
For weeks you’ve been cramming for this exam and you got up early this morning to make sure that you had remembered everything. A lot hangs on this test – your promotion, for one. You can feel the tension rising but say to yourself, “It’s just exam nerves – it’s good stress”, right? Then, when you look at the first question one that you’ve been expecting, your brain goes blank, the words don’t make sense, and you can’t remember a single fact to write down. Read more…
Sam in control of his life, his job and his stress.
I was just about to grab my car keys and get on my way to the office when my mobile rang. I quickly checked caller ID and was surprised to see a colleague’s name. “Why’s Sam ringing me at this time of the morning – he should be almost at work by now”, ran through my mind. It was Sam,and he said he had to see me – it was urgent. Could I drop by on my way to work? He sounded odd on the phone – spoke kind of disjointed and sounded tearful. Bad enough for me to call Sarah to put my appointments on hold. I set off for Sam’s place and a whole gamut of potential disasters that might be facing me ran through my mind as I drove. Read more…
Remember the days when you knew everyone’s name instantly? And recognized faces without a problem? In those days, you never seemed to have to struggle for clues – you just knew. You were probably about 14!
Actually, until you find yourself searching frantically for a name you really know quite well, you’ve taken the skill of recognition for granted. But it is actually a very complex process and it isn’t until your memory has let you down, that you begin to realize this. Read more…
Never forget again!
Most people want to know how to improve their brain. Trouble is, most want improvement without actually having to do anything! And they want it NOW.
Well, there are some quick fixes that you can do today – and there are hints about some ways of doing things that will give you longer term improvement. No-one has to accept forgetfulness as a way of life, particularly if you are entering your 50’s and 60’s. Read more…
