how to improve your memory

I have to say it feels a little odd not to be extending my memory palace today : it really has become a bit of a way of life! It makes me giggle that when I check my bag for work, the list of essentials goes something like this now : phone, keys, diary, periodic table of elements 😛 .

For today’s adventure, I’m going to say a heartfelt thank you to Josh Foer (he was the guy in the TED talk on day 1 of my memory palace adventure). The message of thanks isn’t just for the inspiration, it’s also for the additional benefits of the technique : a genuine appreciation of the power of the human mind and a new sense of presence , a renewed sense aliveness to the world around me and within me.

I’ve tweeted a big “TY” and here’s short “thank you” video too :

I am just going outside an may be some time :).

Today marks the start of a new series of adventures! You’ll remember that at the end of my Space Odyssey, I decided that I wanted to increase both my imaginative capacity and my creative thinking ability. Chess has helped me to think “a couple of moves ahead” and entertain several possibilities all at the same time.

Today I’m moving into an adventure which will encourage me to visualise creatively and to remember huge amounts of information. I’m going to use an ancient method called the memory palace technique to memorise the periodic table of elements over a period of days. I’m fascinated by this technique which links visual and spatial memory ~ I particularly like the conclusions which Josh Foer draws in his TED talk about feats of memory.

What I got from his talk was the following ~ by engaging more deeply with that which we aim to remember, we become more present to it. The more frequently we engage with the world around us in this way, the more present we become to life : we begin to see life in its richness and it becomes more memorable. The more present we are to life, the more “memory-able” we become. This all ties in beautifully with what I’m getting out of my 365-day adventure project in terms of presence and connection, so I’m really looking forward to this next adventure series 🙂 .

In today’s video, I explain how to build a memory palace and I memorise the first 10 elements.