What is Memory?

We start life with very few memories. Most of these memories trigger instinctive responses for survival when we are born. Our first meal is essential. Therefore we recognize the smell of the mother's breast. Because this is the first memory we are using, that memory also emphasizes why our olfactory sense is the strongest and most acute of our five senses.

Amazingly, your brain memory recognizes such subtle things that many events go unnoticed until your attention is brought to them. An olfactory memory test is for you to think of how your origin smells. Everyone recognizes their approximate relationship to home based on odor.

Flex Your Memory Power

Think back in your long term memory of how the soil, the loam, your surroundings smelled when you were very young. They loam of the soil contains the elements, minerals, and a plethora of chemicals. But it also contains bacteria and microorganisms unique in type and concentration. These provide a perfume that cannot be exactly duplicated anywhere else. This is your olfactory relationship to what you know as home.

A Memory Game

This is a simple game we all have played. But as an easy memory check, it works well. Put a blindfold over your eyes. Have someone bring various objects (you may want to start with fruits and vegetables) and have them close enough to your nose that you can smell them. Then you say what you think it is. When you start at this, you may be amazed how many you get wrong.

Types of memory

There are many types of memory. Here is a list of some of them:

Conscious memory also associated with Short term memory

Subconscious memory also associated with Long term memory

Instinctive memory survival and automatic reaction

Autonomic memory - the memory that your brain tells your diaphragm to move so that you continue to breathe.

Short term memory These are memories that we accrue in a short amount of time. Only with much effort, is this information remembered over a long period. At the memory learned point, it has been transferred to the long term memory.

Long term memory These are memories that have been stored for later use. After considerable use of short term memory, those memories will be placed into the long term memory. If you have underlying beliefs that create a barrier to your success, those memories would be in the long term memory, but not necessarily accessible.

So now you are just a little bit wiser. You know a little more about why taking steps to improve the memory is important for you.