Article #52: Memories

“Yaadein mithai ke dibbe ki tarah hoti hain…Ek baar khula, toh sirf ek tukda nahi kha paoge” 

One of the best dialogues from a Bollywood movie. Yes, that’s true, memories are like a box full of sweets. Once you open, you can’t just have a single bite. 


Technically speaking, Memory is information or data that is encoded, stored and retrieved when needed. 

But if you ask me, I cannot come up with a definition. Instead, I would go back into some of the beautiful life moments that remained as Memories now.  


Waking up early on a Sunday morning just to play with the neighboring kids, writing on a wall with piece of chalk considering it as a blackboard, becoming a leader in the school, standing as one of the toppers in the class are some of the childhood memories.  
 
Falling in love for the first time even without realizing the fact that you are in love, roaming round the town along with your friends on your bicycle for no reason, watching a movie on the first day release, having all your favorite street food without any hesitation or limitation are some of the teenage memories. 
 
Achieving success in the area that you are passionate about, discovering the new hidden talents within you, roaming in a place that you have never been, preparing a scrumptious lunch for your family are some of the adult memories. 


I am sure you are able to correlate at least some of them with your memories. 


Well, most of them that I mentioned are the long-term memories for which the data stored is for long duration of time. Of course, you know the second type of memory in a broad sense, that is short term memories, for which the data stored is for short duration of time. 


Along with these two types of memories, we have even so many other types. In fact, you can come up with your own name and call it a type of memory.  


Well, talking about some of the important type of memories, 


1. Sensory memory - The ability to retain impressions of sensory information through 5 senses, sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch 

Ex: A pinch, Taste of food and so on 


2. Episodic Memory - The memory of autobiographic events (times, location, geography, associated emotions and other contextual who, what, when, where, why knowledge) that can be explicitly stated 

Ex: Your Birthday Event, Your Trip, and so on 


3. Procedural Memory - A type of unconscious memory which aids the performance of particular types of tasks without conscious awareness of these previous experiences 

Ex: Riding a bike, drawing and so on 


4. Photographic Memory - Ability to recall an image from memory after seeing it only once. It is typically found in young children 


5. Flashbulb memory - Memories of learning something so shocking or surprising that it creates a strong and seemingly very accurate memory of learning about the event 

Ex: Earthquakes, first date, and so on 


Now, you may ask me a question, why do we need memories? Here are the reasons I would say. 


1. Identity – Memories talk about your identity, the way your name, your family, your house becomes your identity, the memories associated with them as well become your identity 


2. Happiness – Memories bring a different kind of happiness most of the times, when you realize how beautiful some of the moments in your life were 


3. Strength – Memories can become your strength like when something wrong happens and nothing seems to be good, it is only memories that can give strength to you in those moments. 


4. Learnings – While Good Memories bring you happiness, bad memories become your learnings in life. 


Ok, Alright, if memories are so important, then there should be some ways to improve them, right? 

So, here they are.

 

  1. 1. Exercise 

  1. 2. Mental Activities (like Mind games) 

  1. 3. Social Interactions (like attending a Toastmasters meeting in person) 

  1. 4. Eating Healthy (by including items like ladies' finger) 

  1. 5. Sleep (at least for 7-8 hours) 

  1. 6. Stress (seems funny, but there’s a recent study that proved it, stress can also improve your memory. But don’t try to take too much stress) 

  1. 7. Quitting Smoking 

  1. 8. Making Lists (Yeah, the bucket list) 


I hope now you are convinced on how important memories are for all of us. Always keep the things in your memory that make you happy or teach you something in your life with which memories help you keep evolving as a happy better person everyday with handful of learnings. 

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