Aishwarya Hariharan Week #14: Memory Growth
Memory Growth
I’ve always wondered how to enhance my memory. Having to study and memorize so much for a variety of classes, it’s always been hard to keep all the information I need to know inside my brain. It’s always been a challenge for students, especially high schoolers. That being said, there are several ways in which we can enhance our memory, helping us not only retain but understand information more quickly. Let’s look into one of those ways, physical education.
Obviously, there are ways such as getting a good night’s sleep to enhance your memory. Although that can be possible at times, especially for us, being juniors, we don’t get as much sleep as we would like because of the workload that comes with AP classes. That being said, we can look at some reasonable options, one main one as I mentioned earlier being physical activities. Physical activity is proven to increase the blood flow to your whole body, especially your brain. As the blood flow to your brain increases, your memory sharpens. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, the recommended time for physical activity is either 150 mins of moderate aerobic activity like brisk walking in a week, or a minimum of 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity, such as running, throughout the week. Since we are people who are constrained with time, time can be incredibly precious at specific times. That being, we won’t always be able to squeeze in a full workout every day of the week and be able to keep up that routine. So, if we tell ourselves that we have to get this amount of physical activity done by the end of the week, we have the flexibility to do it for less time on certain busy days and more on free days. That way, we get the same benefit and we can make it work into our schedules.
Another very crucial way we can enhance our memory is through socializing. It is proven that socializing with peers, family, or anyone in general enhances an individual’s memory. Social interactions such as hanging out with friends, going out with family, traveling with anybody, etc wards off stress and depression, two of the main factors, especially at our age that reduce memory loss. Lastly, I think it’s important to stay mentally active to get your brain constantly running, which helps increase your attention span and memory. Similar to how physical fitness is important to keep your body in shape, it’s critical to keep your brain and mental health in shape as well by doing activities such as puzzles, crossword puzzles. Like Shiho had talked about in her last blog post, the game “Memory” is also a great example of an activity to help your memory. Although that is something that directly corresponds to increasing your memory, games that challenge you and get you thinking are the games or activities you want to involve yourself in to keep your brain active. It’s hard to constantly remember to do these things, but they have more positive effects than we might always notice, making it even more important to do.
Hi Aishwarya, I liked that your blog included the benefits of physical activity and social interactions because those are both things I am currently working on. After my hockey season ended, my body longed for the increased blood flow and oxygen levels of intense exercise. I used to do intense training for about 4 hours per week. However, due to the lack of sports in my life right now, I am running for 20 minutes and completing a 15 minutes home workout every day to maintain fitness. I got motivated to run after reading David Goggins’s book Can’t Hurt Me, and it has improved both my mood and energy tremendously! As for social interactions, I started working on maintaining eye contact more and giving people fist-pumps.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the mention in your blog post. It is interesting how physical activity and socializing can help improve memory because initially it does not seem to have a direct correlation. I do definitely see a difference in my memorization abilities when I get enough sleep though. I found that reviewing my notes and studying before bed is more effective than doing the same the morning of or right before class. When I try to memorize something I frequently sit down and try to cram information into my brain through repeated exposure or active recall methods, so maybe I will try incorporating physical activity and socializing while I try to memorize things in the future.
ReplyDeleteHi Aishwarya! My parents have recently forced me to go outside and walk with them for an hour every day. I have not noticed any physical or mental improvements just yet but it better be coming soon! Also, I never knew socializing with my peers could help me improve my memory (as I do it excessively every day but I also have not noticed any change in my memory). However, after reading the entirety of your blog post, I realized that I am not noticing the effects of exercising and socializing on my memory because I am not constantly mentally active.
ReplyDeleteHi Aishwarya,
ReplyDeleteI see that once again it comes down to discipline. We can do anything if we have the discipline to pursue it. Our memory is a gift that we have to keep safe and not take for granted. Your blog has reminded me not to procrastinate when it comes to exercising this gift, because without it, my life may be stunted in the future. I guess every change must start small. Whether it be doing Wordle every day during brunch like some of my friends or working out at 6:00 a.m. like a psychopath—I mean passionate and disciplined individual, small changes can create an everlasting difference on one’s mental health. I will definitely start finding ways to incorporate more fun mental exercises throughout my day.
Hey Aishwarya, I always run whenever I feel stressed to get my endorphins up and just feel more relaxed, but I never would have thought that it would have helped with memory, at least not through increased blood flow. I personally found that whenever I would study a subject a lot for a specific period of time and then not touch the subject at all for the next day or week, my memory would always be so much sharper about that topic. I would go out on runs or walks sometimes to process all the information I just learned, so that all the information could properly sink in. Socializing helping memory was also really interesting, because I always that it was so helpful only since whenever I would study or learn something with a friend, I would be able to associate different topics with the more memorable interactions with my friends. I could then try to recall the situation in which we learned the topic as opposed to the topic itself.
ReplyDeleteHi Aishwarya! I do feel that after physical activity, my mind is cleansed and I am at a better state to work, but I never knew that socializing with others could be beneficial for our memory functions, so I am definitely going to socialize even more!
ReplyDeleteHi Aishwarya, it’s great that you are seeking out strategies to improve your memory. I really appreciate your discussion about physical activity and exercise. This is especially true because it’s easy to think that having so much work load as juniors means we all have to give up sleep and exercise. With so much homework to complete and not enough time, then how could it doesn’t seem possible to find time to sleep and exercise too. Your ideas about how to fit exercise in are really important, to think about it flexibly. I also really like your comments on socializing because we have to create a balance between work stress and taking some time to enjoy life too.
ReplyDeleteHey Aishwarya, thank you for letting us know about different strategies to improve memory. I can't say I have the best memory, so doing these strategies should help my memory. Especially in junior, I feel like I have no time, so having an end goal of minutes per week really helps put into perspective the amount needed for maintaining a healthy lifestyle and improving memory while allowing wiggle room and leeway on especially busy days. Your mentions on keeping your mind in shape through socializing is really impactful, and something I will try to do more.
ReplyDeleteHi Aishwarya, it is interesting to see how people can improve their memory. Your blog talked about physical exercise and socialization improving memory; is that because humans have been doing that for thousands of years? Since the human brain evolved when humans were doing those things, I'm wondering how memory has changed since the advent of the Internet and electricity. Since those tools reduced physical exercise in some cases and reduced direct socialization, has the collective human memory decreased?
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