Memory Techniques
Over the years I have heard of several different techniques to aid our memory and be able to memorize things like lists or outlines for talks, remembering consultations etc.
One technique that is widely used is memorizing a rhyme for 1-10 and then hooking what you need to memorize to the picture you already have in place. The more outlandish you can be, the easier it will be to remember and the better it works.
So this is what you want to commit to memory and you can use it for the rest of your life. Take the time to memorize this concept and story. Or make up your own pictorial rhymes.
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One is “Run.” Picture a beautiful horse running around in the center of a circus ring. And on top of the horse, riding it or balanced on it is the thing you want to remember.
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Two is “Zoo.” You are at a zoo, you come up to the gorilla cage and the huge gorilla has it’s hands out of the bars of the cage and as you walk up to it you see it is throwing hundreds of whatever you want to remember out towards the crowd or it is doing what you want to remember.
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Four is “Door.” You look at a huge revolving door. The door is jammed and what ever you want to remember is jamming it up.
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Five is “Hive.” You see a huge bee hive. Coming down the hive is a river of honey and floating in the honey is whatever you want to remember.
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Six is “Stick.” You see a person bending over and like in a cartoon they are going to get a shot in their rear end. You are going to stick them with the huge shot and in the shot is whatever you want to remember.
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Seven is “Heaven.” You go up to the heavens and as you break through the clouds you see something sitting on top of the clouds, as you get closer you see that it is what you want to remember that is sitting on top of the clouds.
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Eight is “Weights.” You are bench pressing several hundred pounds. You look off to see the weights at the end of the bar and you see what you want to remember.
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Nine is “Dine.” You sit down at a beautiful dinner table to dine. You lift one of those silver covers off a tray and what is sitting there for dinner? You guessed it, the thing you want to remember.
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Ten is “Den.” This is where you go into a lions den, and of course behind the lions very well protected is the thing you want to remember.
YES you can make up any rhyme you want. What makes this work is once you remember this 1-10 rhyme it is always the same, so you don’t have to remember 1-10 and the rhyme, you commit that to long term memory. As I said the more colorful and outrageous you make your story the better it is.
Here is an example. You want to remember the outline of your ROF. The first thing to remember is “what is wrong?” So you can imagine you see this beautiful horse galloping around in the center ring of the circus and the person riding the horse is falling off and yelling out to the crowd, “Something is wrong!”
This reminds you that something is wrong.
The second thing you want to remember is “Can I help?” So you might imagine you get to the zoo, you come upon this huge gorilla, and the gorilla is throwing first aid kits out to a little child who skinned their knee. The gorilla is grunting, “I can help.”
The third thing you want to remember is “How long will it take?”
You might imagine that balanced on the Christmas tree is a person stressed and sweating bullets crying “how long do I have to stay up here?” How long will it take?
The forth thing you want to remember is “how much will it cost?” You get to the revolving door and that’s right jammed in the door keeping it from moving is a wad of cash.
Obviously there are endless stories you can play with. The point is to be creative and have fun with it.
I taught this to my daughter when she was around eight and she could remember lists of food we were going to get at the grocery store for days after our outing.
Here’s to the memories.
Russ Rosen, D.C. – Mar 09, 2003
