Strategy # 7 to help your memory is to sing.
Sing out loud, sing from your soul, sing out loud, with spirit, with passion, with soul and lots of gutso!
The singing alone will loosen up your psyche, your inner spirit and nothing helps the memory work better than relaxation and freedom. Ever notice when you cannot remember something, some name, some label and the harder you try to remember? Try letting go of the attempt, loosen up, let go of the intensity for a few minutes. Just let your mind/memory relax. Surprisingly, the memory will trigger what you need more often than not. It means your memory doesn’t work under pressure.
Exercise the memory with a song
Singing out loud is a form of relaxation. Your brain relaxes, your body, your mind and your memory. But now add a little exercise to your memory and your mind. Get the lyrics to a song you want sing. Memorize the lyrics. Now sing it out loud until you can sing it without the lyrics before you.
Your memory and you mind work to memorize a song. Memorizing a song is easier than memorizing a list or a group of places on a map because a song has tempo, has beat, has rhythm and rhyme. Rhythm and rhyme almost prod you into moving along in the song. Try it. You will be surprised not only with how easily it comes to you but also how much enjoyment it brings you.
Poems
A corollary to memorizing a song is memorizing a poem. Again, rhythm and rhyme play the crucial role of prodding you along. Pick a child’s poem, Little Jack Horner, Little Miss Muppet. Google the lines and then start memorizing. You’ll amaze yourself at how well your memory handles the task and you’ll have fun to boot.
Muslims memorize the Koran. Imagine memorizing the bible. I had a college roommate who memorized Samuel Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner…look it up. [ RIME ] We always the center of attention when we did our pub crawl in our university days.
Be unhibited, be free, be open and you will enjoy memorizing and reciting poetry. You don’t have to pub crawl to be a maestro at it. Try “The Dentist and the Crocodile” as your first one [ CROCODILE ]
Really want to flex the brain muscle…try writing poetry!
Enjoy !
