Memory Improvement Tip

by Chet Day

I have a great memory improvement tip this morning for those of you who, like me, are starting to wander into their golden years with less than a stellar recollection system.

Here's the story...

The other night my wife and I were having a little pillow talk about the past, recalling people we'd known and enjoyed during our more than 35 years together.

I started talking about one of the guys who hired me as an English teacher when we lived in New Orleans, a man who was witty and smart and just plain fun to be around.

I could remember all kinds of good stories about him, but do you think I could dredge up his name to save my life?

Nope.

His name just wasn't there. For a few moments, it hovered around the edge of coming into consciousness, but it wouldn't surface.

This sort of lapse usually doesn't bother me too much because most often the name (or whatever else I'm trying to recall) will pop into being amongst my fading gray cells in a few minutes.

But not this time.

His name completely eluded me.

We stopped reminiscing after a time and my wife fell asleep, but I stayed awake, trying to recall my old friend's name.

Well, I kept that up for almost two hours before I finally got frustrated enough to capitulate to age and fading memory.

Then, for some reason, I told myself mentally, "When you wake up in the morning, you'll remember your old friend's name."

I repeated this to myself several times and then turned on my sleep CD and went to sleep.

The next morning, I woke up and walked a few steps into the bathroom and sat down on the throne, and, holy smokes, the name "Lewis Garvin" pops into consciousness.

And, yup, you guessed it... that was the name of my old friend and boss in the best English department I ever taught in.

I was practically giggling with glee over how this memory improvement technique worked, so I started yelling "Lewis, Lewis Garvin," as loud as I could, loud enough to wake my wife, who thought I'd finally gone around the bend for good. "His name was Lewis Garvin."

Well, I guess that's enough wandering around in what passes for a brain in my skull for today, but I did want to share this memory tip because it's a good one.

And it works!

Chet "Memory Tip" Day
Editor, The Natural Health Circus
http://chetday.com/blog