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Failing memory?

I'm working at home and, mid morning, I just went up to go to the loo and I couldn't remember if I'd cleaned my teeth today.  Very quickly I realised that if I had, then my toothbrush would still be damp. I checked, it was dry so I knew that my pearlies needed some attention.

Now I might have been tempted to assign this experience to the "getting older - memory going" category.  But I know that I've always been like this. I get really involved in what I'm doing and can't remember if the routine things have been done or not. I bet if you search your experience you'll find the same as well.  We are all forgetful at times, whether its about our friend's birthdays or putting the bins out. But because of this we have all developed strategies to help our memories, they may be things like diaries that warn you of things in advance (but you still need to remember to look at them!) or other physical checks, like the damp toothbrush, that can tell you if a thing has been done.

Its great to recognise that we are all capable of devising schemes to help our memories at whatever age we are and to recognise and be comfortable about these schemes already being in place as we grow older. As you have been devising these for years then you are probably really good at it so just keep doing it and continue to support you memory in clever ways. 

Ask yourself the two simple questions - What did I use to remind myself today? and What tricks did I use to check that things had been done?  These give you the basis for development of new memory helping strategies.

Keep Learning

A study in Finland, reported in today's Times of India, has linked learning with protection from Alzheimer's disease.  This really backs up a lot of the work that we do in our Fresh Steps programme with some hard evidence.  We already know that as we get older we are into a use it or lose it situation in relation to "the little grey cells" so extra cerebral exercise is a great insurance policy.  We now know from this study reported in the learned journal Neurology that the risk of Alzheimer's correlates inversely with the years of education that you have experienced.  Basically what they are saying, having studied 1400 people over 20 years, is that the longer you have been in education, the less your risk of Alzheimer's.

Now you could sit back and say that it's too late now to do anything, my education is over.  That would be fatalistic and definitely very un-Fresh Stepish!  Or you could choose to say "Wow what great news!  That just spurs me on to find out about that evening course/sign up for that training course at work/enquire about study leave/buy that new teach yourself electronics textbook/go back to my French class/learn some new Salsa steps" (delete as appropriate).  That would be a much more positive response, to keep topping up that insurance policy constantly with new education and learning.

It's invigorating, stretches your mind, gives you added confidence and is of course fun (and we all need more fun as we get older!).  So what are you waiting for, make that phone call, send that email or fill  that application form in TODAY!  The longer you leave it the closer you are getting to your brain frying itself.