Mental Mints

Every woman over 40  has experienced that life altering moment of forgetfulness. The OH NO! Where did I put my keys? Where are my glasses? Or why the heck did I just walk into the bedroom? It is these very times that give us pause. Are we really getting that old? Has early Alzheimers set in? Or are we just simply overwhelmed and having a synapses meltdown? And for gawd sakes can we please put a pin in it. We’ve got too much to do!

Good news, all humans, men and women equally,(thank goodness it’s not just us ladies), suffer from diminishing brain capacity. We lose about 85,000 neurons a day according to Dr. John Medina, PhD, director of the Brain Center for Applied Learning Research at Seattle Pacific Brain Center, affiliate professor of bioengineering at the University of Washington in Seattle and author of Brain Rules:12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School.

Bad News, we all reached our mental peak at 18 or 19 years old.  Since prehistoric men and women only lived to the age of 23 or 24 our brain performance maxed out at the perfect time. Now that we’re living well into our 70 and 80’s the midlife brain drain is a scientifically predisposed genetic free fall.

Dr. Medina explains that our brains aren’t actually forgetting information, they are instead selectively remembering. Your brain is constantly taking in a lot of information, not all of it can be processed,  so it has to make a decision about what it will and won’t take in. In studying the Generation Jones fem brain Medina has found that it’s not about losing information that’s in our brain that’s messing with our memory, it’s that we have a more difficult time with the selectivity process. In other words, remembering why you entered a room gets jumbled with all the other information hitting your head all at one time. It’s like when your entire family asks you 8000 questions (ok slight exaggeration) all at once and you hear absolutely none of it. You know, you know what I’m talking about. We are losing control of our controlled remembering…and yes our minds.

http://www.brainrules.net/exercise

Good News, just like the peppermints you pop in your mouth to refresh your breath, a healthy 30 minutes of daily aerobics refreshes your brain. In a geriatric study done with people over 75 years old statistics showed that a physically active lifestyle lowered the risk of Alzheimers, decreased vascular dementia and decreased the likelihood of depression. Anyone for an almighty step class?! And get this…studies also suggest that an active population is smarter than the sedentary population. In other words, people who are physically active are better able to “mobilize their IQ”. I’m feeling smarter by the minute! The prescription for maintaining your mental acuity is fitness FOREVER. You don’t have to take a leap of faith here with my lifelong training mantra..this is scientific FACT.

Aerobic exercise boosts brainpower, enhances focus and increases your selective remembering ability. The best news of all is anyone can start this process anytime. Data indicated that in as little as four months of working out 30 minutes three times a week a person’s remembering improved by 100 to 200 percent. How’s that for odds. You must workout at least three times a week, once a week won’t do it, and to see marked improvement you have to keep your body moving at this pace for at least three years.

While you are getting your training program up to speed here are some mind tricks to help you trigger your remembering.

Those of you prone to misplacing items like keys? Pick a place in your home that you can put those things all the time every day. In my house we keep all our car keys, house keys, keys, keys and more keys in a big cappuccino cup on the kitchen counter. Everyone knows to return their keys to the cup everyday. No confusion on that front.

Are you one of those people who just can’t remember someone’s name? Before you are about to meet someone ask your self “what is her/his name?” When you hear it your mind will be ready to remember it. Once you are told his/her name repeat it three times in your head. Then use it a couple of times while you are speaking to him/her.  That will help it stick.

Have a hard time retaining detail and fine facts? Make up a mnemonic phrase. I recently studied for a test where I had to remember a sequence of events.  Time, Frequency, Duration and Mode became Tea For D and Me. It so helped when it came to quiz time. Another slick memory trick is to create a sound a like or an association.  Cognitive, Associative, and Autonomous translated to CAA for me, which in my world is a high powered entertainment agency. Super easy.

You know which cues work best to help you keep your selective remembering humming.

My job here is the P.S. …..Don’t forget to do your daily aerobics.