Memory is a tricky thing. There’s short term memory, long term memory, “picture” memory, fact memory, etc etc. I’ve used several techniques in my life to be able to improve my memory skills. A good way of remembering a list of groceries, for instance, outside of writing them down, would be to imagine them on the hood of your car. Actually imagine that apples, tomato’s, frozen pizza, are sitting on the hood of your car. Your brain will tie the “fact” list to a graphic and be able to recall it easier.

I’m not certain why the brain works that way, has to do with the different parts of the brain responsible for different types of memory. Have you ever heard of people “never forgetting a face” vs “being terrible with names”? That’s because the brain handles the two types of data in different ways.

Now, I’m not sure what type of memory is involved with a train of thought. It’s not really a fact and it’s not a image or a picture or some thing you’ve seen in your life. It’s just a thought that whizzed by your consciousness while driving down the road.

Such a thought whizzed by me the other day. It was a good one too. Something nice and interesting that I wanted to ponder at greater lengths later, when I wasn’t dealing with city traffic. Have you ever felt like you hit a good thought and just wanted to save it? That’s the feeling I had.

Sure enough though, several stop lights, a few honking horns and getting back into the house and the thought was gone forever. When I sat down to compose my thoughts I suddenly remembered that I had forgotten something that I didn’t want to.

I was rather upset at this realization. I muted the TV, shushed the dogs and starting concentrating hard. I thought and thought but not matter how hard the thought just ran away. I thought about the things I would normally think about but nothing. No matter how hard I tried I just could not pull that one simple thought I had before.

So, I stopped thinking about. Instead I changed the way I was approaching it. I decided to put myself in the same mindset I was in before. If I had thought about it once, I would think of it again. Think about it like this, I have several web accounts throughout the Internet. I don’t bother remembering the user names and passwords for each. I do remember what user names and passwords I am likely to use. I basically operate under the idea that if I acted or thought in a certain way in a certain scenario in the past, I am very likely to act or think in that way when encountering the scenario again.

So, I retraced my steps and not my thoughts. I closed my eyes and remembered walking where I was walking a few minutes before I thought what I thought. I looked at the remembered sights. Heard the remembered voices. I let myself think freely, just as I was last time. I sat doing this for five minutes. Guess what happened?  The thought sprang up in my head just as I did the first time. My mind when put in the same scenario operated along the same lines.

I was quite literally, pleasantly, surprised with this outcome. The implications could be far reaching. Are we programmed to respond to things in a certain way? All sorts of questions spring to mind. Questions about free will, destiny, determinism, and more.  What is certain is that the topic requires more thought and investigation.

A method to improve your memory

While we’re on the topic of memory I thought I’d share a method I used some years ago to help with my own. It actually worked quite well and I noticed an improvement to memory fairly quickly. It was call a five day recall. It’s really terribly simple. Before bed each night, I would remember everything I did, day by day, for the last five days. I would remember what I ate for breakfast, what I did, as best I could, for each hour. I would do this for the last five days. I would do this each night. Obviously there was a lot of overlap. By reviewing the last five days every night, I would be reviewing the same day five times.

I quickly noticed an improved memory recall for events. It was like I was recommitting day to day memories to long term memory by revisiting them. Memories are connections between neurons in the brain. By remembering them I am, in a way, changing my own brain structure by reinforcing synaptic connections.

Try it for a week and see if your memory improves. I imagine that it will. Good luck!