Your short term memory is good for more than just cramming for tests, or preparing a speech or presentation. Developing your memory will help reduce your risk of mental degeneration as you age, and work to delay problems like Alzheimer’s or Dementia. Here is a quick guide on how to help prep your brain to remember everything you want to remember.

The first rule for improving your memory skills is to pay attention to the task at hand. Attempting to block out anything that can distract you will increase your focusing abilities and make learning easier. Televisions, loud music and a hectic environment will only complicate the memory process, causing your brain’s processing speed to go down. You need to focus, blocking out distractions.

It just takes a little practice, but it’s possible for you to remember just about anything you want. And remember, the harder the task, the more concentration you’ll need.

Another way to improve short-term memory is to use a variety of physiological cues, whether it be visual, auditory, or even linking a certain memory to a similar experience. If you have trouble remembering names, try to find an association of something or someone familiar to you. Who do they remind you of? Do they look like someone or someone that you already know , like a celebrity, or a relative? Perhaps the sound of their voice reminds you of something. If none of those are working, try using repetition by repeating their information. This helps create a specific neurological pathway in the brain that makes information easier to recall.

A great way to improve short term memory is by association. This can be applied to names, places, vocabulary, and a variety of other things. If you have trouble locating your car in a large parking lot, try to associate the aisle number with something that is familiar to you. Look around and see if there is anything in the immediate area that is recognizable. And, if all else fails, take a picture of the aisle and row location with your camera phone! Numbers can be especially hard to remember, but there are even tricks to lock those into your brain. For instance, you can turn the rhythm of the spoken numbers into a jingle or a rhyme to help you remember. If your social security number is the same number of syllables as the words in a tune you like, sing the numbers to that tune. You’ll never forget them!

As we get older, repetition and focus becomes more important. The processing speed of your brain begins to slow down. As we age our “working memory” which is mostly short-term memory, is never fully stored and never becomes a part of our permanent memory making it easily replaced by another bit of information that takes the same pathway as the first. Because our brain size decreases, we lose the efficiency of our brain functions, and facts that were easy to remember when we were younger, take more effort, and practice. Simple tasks such as the placement of keys, or the name of a new acquaintance take extra effort. Just as exercising the body make you physically stronger, exercising the mind will make you mentally stronger.

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Research has shown that there are four main cornerstones to healthy brain function: physical exercise, mental exercise, healthy nutrition, and proper stress management.

1. Physical Exercise

Physical exercise can be a difficult cornerstone to work on, especially since it can be overwhelming if you are not currently living an active lifestyle. If you are not currently partaking in an exercise program, be certain to speak with your doctor about whether or not it is safe for you partake in regular exercise. Once you have received the approval from your doctor, do not turn into a weekend warrior. Instead, start setting small, manageable goals, such as taking a 15 minute walk. Do exercise that you enjoy. Focus on cardiovascular exercise during times when you cannot do both cardiovascular and strength training exercises.

2. Mental Exercise

Exercising your brain can be a lot of fun, especially if you let your curiosity pave the road. Learn a new fact or try a new activity at least once a day. Ensure that you partake in activities that you enjoy so that you will stick with them. Do not worry about whether or not you are good at them. The idea is to challenge your mind, not to win a contest. If you enjoy playing games, try out crossword puzzles, sudoku, and chess. These are great games to challenge your mind.

3. Healthy Nutrition

Healthy nutrition is the cornerstone not only to the health of your body, but also to the health of your brain. The best thing you can do to work on eating properly is to add in lots of leafy green vegetables to your diet. Plan your meal around your vegetables. After you have chosen which vegetables you will be eating, choose your fruit, protein, dairy and grains. Be certain, though, that you learn what a proper portion size is to ensure that you are not overeating. It can be easy to eat a whole chicken breast, when in reality, a portion is only 3 ounces and is about the size of a deck of cards. Also, add in cold water fish to ensure that you are getting enough omega-3 fatty acids. Tuna, halibut, sardines, salmon, mackerel, and herring are excellent sources of this fatty acid. Lastly, focus on eating foods that are as close to their natural state as possible. If it comes in a box, bag, or shrink wrapped, try not to eat it. This will make it easy to choose foods with a low glycemic index and packed full of vitamins and minerals.

4. Stress Management

Managing stress is easier said than done. However, there are things you can do to make managing stress a little bit easier. For starters, get plenty of restful sleep each night. Also, be certain that you maintain your social connections by keeping in touch with your friends and family, even if you only send a quick e-mail. Yoga and meditation are calming activities for some people, while others prefer to soak in a tub and read a good book. Make sure that you spend some time each week relaxing in whatever method works best for you.

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Instead of wishing for a better memory and improved cognitive function, start to do something about it and improve the health of your brain with these tips.

1. Eat some brain food.

Dark chocolate is brain food, so eat a portion of it on a regular basis. Dark chocolate has been shown to increase the dopamine in the brain, thereby improving memory.

2. Write an outline of your last outing.

Go on a guided tour of a park, museum, or other place that you find to be interesting. When you get home, try to write an outline of what you experienced. Be as detailed as possible. This memory activity will train your brain to remember more.

3. Memorize some lyrics.

Listen to a song that you have not previously memorized and try to memorize the lyrics. Play the song over and over until you have successfully memorized all of the words. This will help your brain to listen better and will improve your memory by releasing acetylcholine.

4. Work on your peripheral vision.

Stare right ahead into the distance and try to memorize everything that you see, including what you see in your peripheral vision. After this exercise, make a list of everything that you saw. If possible, stare at the same things again and try to notice anything that you were not previously aware of and add it to your list. This exercise will increase acetylcholine, thereby improving your memory.

5. Pick up a musical instrument.

Lots of people intend to learn to play a musical instrument, but life gets so busy that it is not usually a priority. Now is the time to make learning to play a musical instrument a priority because it will help to strengthen your brain.

6. Put some puzzles together.

Jigsaw puzzles are good for more than a social evening. Jigsaw puzzles that are at least 500 pieces can exercise your brain, improve your cognitive function, and increase the accuracy of your visual judgments.

7. Turn down the volume.

Keep the volume of the radio and television at a conversational level. You may be tempted to raise the volume to make the words easier to hear, but keep the volume down so improve your brain’s ability to interpret sound. Once you are able to make out all of the words that are spoken at this level without any problems, turn the volume down even lower. This exercise will not only help your brain function, but will make you a better conversational listener.

8. Toss a ball.

Keep your brain healthy by challenging your coordination and visual acuity. This task is easily accomplished by tossing a ball and catching it. Once you can do this easily with one ball, add another ball and start to learn to juggle.

9. Be competitive with yourself.

Take an activity that you enjoy to a higher level, such as knitting, putting together jigsaw puzzles, or completing crossword puzzles. Get competitive with yourself to see how quickly you can accomplish the task or how accurately you can work. This will keep your brain constantly in a learning mode.

10. Become ambidextrous.

Start learning to use your non-dominant hand. Be certain that you only perform safe tasks, such as brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand or using the mouse with your non-dominant hand. Do not perform dangerous activities, such as driving or using a steak knife with your non-dominant hand until you are truly ambidextrous.

11. Make fish the new white meat.

Add fatty fish, such as salmon, to your diet. Eat it regularly to obtain enough of the fish oil to improve your brain’s cognitive function.

12. Exercise your body.

If you want to have a healthy brain, you must also have a healthy body. Keeping your body healthy will improve overall circulation, including circulation to your brain. This can help your brain to stay healthy and create new brain cells.

13. Opt to walk on uneven surfaces.

Walking on uneven surfaces challenges your brain’s equilibrium and will improve your balance. Be careful when you first start with this exercise and ensure that you are always taking proper safety precautions.

14. Get adequate sleep.

The body needs rest to repair itself. This is also true of the brain. People that do not sleep enough tend to have trouble with their memory and learning new information, so get a good night of sleep before you start your day to keep your brain at its peak performance.

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The human mind is a tremendous thing – there are so many facts revealed about it, and so many things which still remain an enigma for us. Science is struggling to explain such strange developments, but still unable to describe their actual origins. Although majority of us are already familiar of a few mental conditions on this list, several others are very strange, unfamiliar and beyond the boundary of logical domain. Checkout if you have any of the following strangest mental conditions. Here is a collection of top 15 strangest conditions of the Human Mind.

1- Prosopagnosia

Prosopagnosia is a mental condition in which a person is ineffective to distinguish faces of people or objects that they should know. People going through this disorder are typically capable of using their other senses to recognize people – for instance a person’s perfume, the shape or style of their hair, the sound of their voice, or even their gait. A famous case of this phenomena was mentioned in the 1998 book (and later Opera by Michael Nyman) called “The man who mistook his wife for a hat”.

2- Fregoli Delusion

Fregoli delusion is an uncommon mental condition in which a person holds the impression that different people are, in fact, the same person in an assortment of disguises. It is frequently related to paranoia and the impression that the person in disguise is attempting to persecute them. The delusion is named after the famous Italian actor Leopoldo Fregoli who was renowned for his skill to make quick changes of appearance during his stage act. It was first accounted in 1927 in the case study of a 27-year-old woman who thought she was being persecuted by two actors whom she often went to see at the theatre. She reported that these people “pursued her closely, taking the form of people she knows or meets”.

3- Capgras Delusion

Capgras delusion is a mental condition in which a person believes that a close friend or family member has been replaced by an identical looking faker. This could be associated with the old belief that babies were slipped and replaced by changelings in medieval folklore, and the modern idea of aliens seizing the bodies of people on earth to live amongst us for reasons unknown. This delusion is frequent among those who are schizophrenic; however it can also occur in other disorders.

4- Nihilistic delusion

Nihilistic delusion is a condition whose theme centers on the nonexistence of self or parts of self, others, or the world. A person with this type of delusion may have the false hallucination that the world is ending.

5- Erotomania

Erotomania is a mental condition in which a person starts to think that another person, usually someone of higher status, is in love with him or her. It is, however, rare for people with this type of delusion to try to contact the other person (through phone calls, letters, emails, gifts, and sometimes stalking).

6- L’esprit de l’Escalier

L’esprit de l’escalier (French= stairway wit) is the sensation of thinking of an ingenious counter when its too late. The phrase can be used to portray a comeback to an insult, or any witty, quick remark that comes to mind too late to be helpful—when one is on the “staircase” leaving behind. The German word “treppenwitz” stands for the same condition. In English, the phrasal idiom describes this condition as “being wise after the event”. This condition frequently comes with a feeling of regret at having not thought of the riposte when it was most required or appropriate.

7- Grandiose delusion

In this type of delusion, a person overdraws his / her sense of self-importance and believes that he or she has special powers, talents, or outstanding skills. At times, the subject would believe that he/ she is a celebrity (for example, a rock star or Jesus Christ). Normally a person with this delusion is convinced he/ she has achieved some great accomplishment for which they have not received enough credit or recognition.

8- Presque Vu (Almost Seen)

Presque vu is almost similar to the “tip of the tongue” feeling – it is the strong sensation that you are about to go through an epiphany – though the epiphany rarely happens. The condition of presque vu can be very disorienting, perturbing and distracting.

9- Jamais Vu (Never Seen)

Jamais vu stands for a familiar situation which is not recognized. It is often regarded the opposite of déjà vu and it comprises a sense of eeriness. The observer does not distinguish the situation despite knowing logically that they have been there before. It is usually described as when a person shortly doesn’t recognize a person, word, or place that they actually know. Chris Moulin, a researcher at Leeds University, inquired 92 volunteers to write up “door” 30 times in 60 seconds. He accounted that 68%of his guinea pigs showed symptoms of jamais vu, such as starting to doubt that “door” was a real word. This makes clear that jamais vu might be an indication to brain fatigue.

10- Déjà Senti (Already Felt)

Déjà senti is the mental process of having “already felt” something. This is totally a mental phenomenon and rarely remains in your memory subsequently. A person diagnosed with Déjà Senti has accounted that “What is occupying the attention is what has occupied it before, and indeed has been familiar, but has been forgotten for a time, and now is recovered with a slight sense of satisfaction as if it had been sought for. The recollection is always started by another person’s voice, or by my own verbalized thought, or by what I am reading and mentally verbalize; and I think that during the abnormal state I generally verbalize some such phrase of simple recognition as ‘Oh yes—I see’, ‘Of course—I remember’, etc., but a minute or two later I can recollect neither the words nor the verbalized thought which gave rise to the recollection. I only find strongly that they resemble what I have felt before under similar abnormal conditions.”

You may consider it as the sensation of having just mouthed, but acknowledging that you, actually, didn’t utter a single word.

11- Déjà Visité (Already Visited)

Déjà visité is a rare mental phenomenon and it exemplifies a preternatural knowledge of a new place. For instance, you may have a go at it your way around a totally new town or a place you may have never been before, and knowing that it is not possible for you to have this knowledge. Déjà visité is related to spacial and geographical relationships, while déjà vécu is related to temporal happenings. Nathaniel Hawthorne reported about an experience of this condition in his book “Our Old Home” in which he visited a ruined castle and had eerily known everything about its layout. Later on, he was able to trace the experience to a poem he had read many years early by Alexander Pope in which the castle was precisely described.

12- Déjà Entendu (Already heard)

Déjà Entendu is a sensation in which sounds or voices have been heard in the past.

13- Déjà Vécu (Already lived through or experienced)

Déjà vécu is what most individuals are actually going through when they think they are experiencing deja vu. Déjà vu is the feeling of having seen something before, whereas déjà vécu is the sensation of having seen an event before, but in great detail – such as recognizing smells and sounds. This is also typically accompanied by a very strong feeling of recognizing what’s gonna come next. In my own experience, I have not only recognized what was going to come next, but have been able to tell those around me what’s gonna come next – and I was 100% correct. Well, this is a very strange and unaccountable feeling…

14- Déjà Voulu (Already Wanted)

Déjà Voulu is a sensation of disturbance of memory in which an individual believes that his or her present desires are incisively the same as desires held some time earlier.

15- Déjà Vu (Already Seen)

Déjà vu is the experience of being sure that you have experienced or seen a new situation before – you experience as though the event has already occurred or is repeating itself. This condition is typically accompanied by a strong sense of familiarity and a sense of strangeness, eeriness, or bizarreness. The “previous” feeling is generally assigned to a dream, but from time to time there is a very sure sense that it has really happened in the past.

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