Age and memory huh?
We know we're supposed to lose it as we get older so lose it we do. We can't remember names, faces, the titles of
films particularly the one wotsit was in.
You know him, he starred in that other film with the guy who used to be
on tele and the woman who was married to thingy who I think has been in
something with George Clooney.
I will admit that I had been buying into this myth of ageing
and worrying that my mind wasn't what it used to be, always assuming it wasn't
my poor memory telling me that I used to have a memory and in fact that memory
was false because my memory was now so bad I really couldn't remember.
However, I'm a bit of a bookworm and recently came across an
old favourite - Tony Buzan - and his book on "The Age Heresy: Achieve More
- Not Less - As You Get Older. Full
details below (to make sure you remember to read all the way to the end).
I was delighted to discover that I do still have a memory
capable of remembering and recalling lots of stuff, except where I put my
glasses, why I've brought the jam upstairs instead of the washing, and why the
cats are safely indoors and Tony is locked out in the garden.
The only difference between us and the younger generations
is that we are seconds slower on
recall because the mature mind is a repository of a great deal of information
the young haven't lived long enough to know, and when we want to remember
something we have a great deal more sifting to do. Thereby also providing proof that the young
don't know everything yet otherwise they'd think slower.
Because I'm in my Rockin' Rebellious 50's I was not going to
take the word of an internationally known author and expert in the field
without running a proper scientific study with all the checks and balances
thereby involved; but no scientists because I don't know any. So I decided to do the 'Credit Card Test'.
When I was young I had a memory like a computer and apart
from being able to telephone every hospital in Greater London without looking
up the number I could always quote my credit card number without looking at the
card; then I got divorced and had to change credit cards.
This was rather a nuisance, but not one worth remarrying
for, as I was going to have to have a new credit card and I was I older so remembering the long number
across the middle would be impossible. Of course it was impossible because I'd fallen for the age myth and decided that
it would be so, and the mind does as it's told.
Flash forward 20 years and here I am deciding that now I'm
going to remember that number. I felt extremely brave. "Can't be too difficult" I thought
because I'd seen it a million times over the past 20 years (sorry Tony I meant
twenty or so times) so the number should be in there somewhere. I looked at it, I remembered it, job done, my
mind was saved!
Two weeks later we discovered that our credit card
provider's computer systems have been hacked and we have to have a new credit
card. I lifted up my eyes to the
Universe from whence cometh my salvation and screamed "Are you freakin'
kidding me? I finally memorise the
bleeping number and you bleeping do this to me!" I had to blame the Universe because I didn't
know the name of the hacker I needed to curse with halitosis and genital warts!
Two weeks after that - credit card-less and therefore bored
on a Saturday - we received our new credit cards. With a heavy heart I looked at the number it
would now take me a further 20 years to remember, and I remembered it straight
away, security pin and all. I still do
and this was well over a year ago.
In reading the Tony Buzan book which deals with a lot more
than memory, I had deleted the programming that ageing requires a general
deterioration of everything from your hair to your toenails; including a
sagging of everything including your mind.
I had now accepted into my reality that the brilliant memory I was born
with hadn't gone anywhere. It was right
there in my head and all I needed to do was trust it.
The details of the book are:
"The Age Heresy:
You Can Achieve More - Not Less - As You Get Older".
Tony Buzan and Raymond Keen
Epub ISBN: 9781448116478
Published by Random House
First published in 1996
Happy reading and trust your own mind and not the trash
talking negative belief systems with which we're surrounded.
Happy Youthful Rebellion
Deb
www.debhawken.com
www.debhawkenwriter.com
www.facebook.com/DebHawkenTransformationalExpert
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