Improve Your Memory

The first twenty-odd minutes are for relaxing. You breathe slowly, smell the salty air, pick up a pink and white conch shell, lie on a blanket and soften your body from head to toes. Only after the sunset countdown does the voice say you are receptive to suggestions about memory and recall.

The session says remembering begins while something is happening. Whether you are reading, listening or watching, you must be fully present as it comes in. If you give attention at that moment, it is stored properly and easier to find later.

You picture a memory bank of neatly organised file cabinets with many drawers. When information comes in, you associate it with something, put it in a file and note where the file is. To recall, you remember the cabinet and drawer, open the file, relax and let it drift up. The session compares it to making a withdrawal from a well-stocked bank.

The voice stops and gives you a scene to rehearse. You read something and file it, then retrieve it. You take in a name or facts in a conversation, then pull them out. You join an activity and then relive it. Each round has a store step and a retrieve step.

It calls it a mnemonic device. You look at the person, in person or in your mind, and link something about how they look with their name. The sequence is focus, look, listen, associate, remember.

You imagine recalling something easily, first six months from now and then a year from now, while doing something else at the same time. The aim is to feel how good effortless recall is in your body, mind and emotions. Near the end it also tells you that you needn't remember every passing thought, and that the choice is yours.