“Treat Me to Remembering.”
It’s that time of year when people of a certain age loved to be scared–October! However being scared or any anxiety provoking situation can have a huge effect on your memory. The physiology, while not simple, can be distilled down to this…STRESS HORMONES. The primary stress hormone cortisol can interrupt our ability to use and organize our thinking skills in a productive fashion.
Let’s take the case of the embarrassing moment at the dinner party one Hallo’s Eve. A friend was, sitting among 8 of us at our restaurant a number of years back, trying to remember the name of a popular character from To Kill A Mockingbird, Addicus Fitch. She got so frustrated with herself and wouldn’t let go of her herculean effort to find the name. Her growing frustration was palpable. Her husband later told me that this happens quite often.
Most of the time when you are at this frustration level the ‘trying’ is counterproductive to the retrieving/recalling/remembering. By this point my friend had activated her ‘fight or flight’ mechanism called the Sympathetic Nervous System and was generating stress hormones as mentioned above–cortisol. If ever there was something to help work against your ability to remember it’s the negative emotions of anxiety, frustration and negativity that the stress hormones produce and will surely prevent you from finding the words you seek. (There are times when emotions, even negative emotions can enhance memory recall–we’ll get to that later.)
When trying to recall information that doesn’t slide off the tip of your tongue, invite your Parasympathetic System to help calm you down by doing the exercises below. Once achieved and you are in a more relax state, good ‘ol Addicus’s name will easily be remembered.
DAILY EXERCISES TO FACILITATE REMEMBERING MORE EASILY
It starts with:
METACOGNITION: Awareness of your situation and thoughts.”I’m feeling a little uptight or stressed about this.” Make a “Calm2Remember©” plan using:
SELF TALK: Be patient with yourself when you find yourself fighting an uphill battle of searching for a word (word finding) by using self talk: “I now have tools to get calm and don’t need to be frustrated.” Or,”I remember better when I am calm. I am going to belly breathe and come back to this search later.” Other ideas that work: “I have a choice to fight it or change the outcome with my ‘Calm2Remember©’ plan. I have good results and choose to stay unstressed.”
BELLY BREATHING: Be sure to use your ‘Belly Breathing’ to stimulate your Parasympathetic system. (see MyMemoryPal.com© YouTube video “Belly Breathing” for technique.)
Okay, LMK how long it takes to remember the word(s) you are searching for after a week of practice and then after a month of practice! I bet the time will be shorter after a month of calming practice.
Remember me until next time,
Jenn Bulka, Memory Therapist, SLP CA#14,006
MyMemoryPal.com
Now on YouTube! Search “MyMemoryPal.com”
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