Every person at least once in his life has forgotten an event, the name of an old acquaintance, or the location of a specific thing. Doctors who study the physiology of the body explain this by saying that the brain retains only those memories that are constantly used or have turned out to be the most vivid and significant for a person. All the rest are sent for storage in a kind of “database” of the brain: you can get to them if you want, but on the way to this a person may encounter unexpected failures. How can a person remember what he has forgotten, and is it possible to do it on his own?
Why do we forget certain things?
Before we talk about how to remember what you forgot, let’s look at the main reasons for our forgetfulness.
There are quite a lot of options why we constantly forget some information, important or not. We will highlight the main ones. The first, most common reason is insufficient concentration.
Remember how often you cannot remember where you put your keys, phone, notepads, even things. In most cases, you forget where you put the thing if you are in a hurry somewhere or you are distracted, if you are in a hurry and only think about how not to be late, you feel bad, etc. That is, one of the reasons for forgetfulness is absent-mindedness.
The second reason, no less common, is that you consider the information unimportant or unnecessary. In this case, you don't want to memorize it on a subconscious level. The reason may also be the complexity of the information itself.
The third option that we will highlight is weak memory. Agree, not all people can remember large amounts of information for a long time, no matter what it is. This means that after some time it will be erased from memory. It can also be noted that over time, memory weakens, and a person increasingly begins to forget what he knew.
In order to remember as much information as possible and not forget it, you need to constantly train your memory. We will talk to you about how to do this later.
In addition, it happens that we ourselves want to forget this or that incident, words, names, knowledge.
Recommendations
- Always maintain brain tone, so you will not only remember information better, but also find non-standard creative solutions in case of difficulties. Learn more in the article about the most effective exercises for recharging the brain.
- Add a little pedantry to your everyday life. That is, hang your keys only on the same hook at the entrance, think of a place for the remote control, cosmetics, combs and other small things. When absolutely everything in your home has its place, then you won’t have to waste extra time and energy searching. Even if you think hard, you will unconsciously put everything in its place, if only you designate them for yourself in advance.
- If no other methods help, maybe the Universe decided to take something away from you and give something else in return? Think about it, and no matter how strange it may seem, try to come up with at least 5 reasons why it’s good that you lost something. Focus on resources and opportunities, because challenges and difficulties are given to us precisely so that we develop and leave our comfort zone.
Recalling forgotten information
So, before we talk about how to remember where you put a thing (and this is the most common problem), let's try to figure out how to remember any information that surrounds us.
How to remember forgotten information? For example, you studied the material for a year, then repeated it before taking the exam, but when the time came to answer, you completely forgot everything. What to do in such a situation? Try to remember. To do this, do the following.
First of all, remember exactly how you learned this material - sitting at a book, taking notes, listening to the teacher. Try to reproduce this moment in your head as accurately as possible. In most cases, this technique helps to remember forgotten things.
In addition, we advise you to relax and think about something else. Quite often, important information slips out of your head precisely because of anxiety, fear, and lack of self-confidence.
Looking for a missing item
What to do if you forgot where you left a necessary and important thing?
How can you remember exactly where you put it? Let's talk about how to remember where you put something. First of all, try to remember where you usually put this item and where you leave it. For example, if these are keys, try to recall in your memory what you did after you opened the apartment door and went inside. If it is a telephone, remember with whom and what you talked on it, where exactly, and it is quite possible that you will soon understand where you put it.
We also recommend that you walk around the room as you usually do. It is quite possible that you will soon remember where you put this item and find your loss.
Location
A classic example is headphones. Many people forget them or the charger in the most unexpected places, and then cannot remember where they left them.
First of all , think about where you usually put your headphones. In which pocket of a jacket or bag? Which part of the desk?
Then remember what you did after you supposedly put them in the right place. Where did you go, who did you talk to, what else was you thinking about at that moment, what music did you listen to or want to listen to? The more details you remember, the faster you will find the loss.
Another good method is to walk around the room as you normally would. Just walk along your usual route. If this does not help, reproduce the events not in chronological order, but in reverse. Usually the brain reboots during the process and concentrates better on details.
As a last resort , just go back to where you last saw the thing you needed and remember what you were going to do with it. One of the methods will definitely help.
Remembering passwords
What to do if you forgot your password? For example, we had such a misfortune that we don’t know how to remember the WiFi password. What to do?
In this case, you also need to sharpen your memory. First of all, remember what exactly you put on passwords - numbers, letters or words. Next, we try to remember what ciphers you often use. Try to go through the most likely options. In addition, a fairly effective way is to remember what you were thinking about at the moment when you registered, what you were doing. If you recall those minutes in your memory, it is likely that you will remember him.
What if you forgot and don’t know how to remember your login? In this case, you just need to remember what you like, what or who you associate yourself with. After all, logins are often our nicknames, nicknames, what we call ourselves.
“Where did we meet?”
It happens that you see a person on the street and cannot remember where you saw him.
How can you remember who it is and what his name is? How to remember a person, especially someone you barely know? First of all, you need to strain your memory and try to remember where exactly you saw him. What places are associated with him? This will make it possible to remember exactly where you met him.
Next, we try to determine what associations you have with the name of this person. It happens that it is associated with a particular action, event, color, etc. In addition, you can go through all the letters of the alphabet. It is quite possible that this way you will remember which one of them the person’s name begins with, and then remember it completely.
Human
Have you met? See you exactly! Just when and where? And anyway, what’s his name? It happens that they say hello to you, and you answer mechanically, not really understanding who it was. It’s worse if the person continues the dialogue, and you stand there and cannot understand where you know each other from. To avoid getting into awkward situations, try to remember the name.
To do this, mentally go through all the letters of the alphabet and determine the most suitable one. Then remember what places you associate with your interlocutor. What sounds, thoughts, smells and colors. If you strain your memory, the name will come up by itself.
even easier if you remember who introduced you to each other: just remember the third interlocutor and the moment he pronounces the name. It should work.
If we are talking about an actor or a celebrity, then everything is simple: remember the films in which he played, the songs he sang, his significant other, events and the clothes he wore to them. The name is remembered very quickly - verified.
Remembering the past
The most necessary, but difficult skill is to remember the past. Quite often it happens that you want to recall some moment in life - childhood or youth, to revive in your memory this or that event, celebration, meeting. What to do in this case, how to remember the past?
First of all, try to evoke in your head at least distant images associated with the event you need. Then begin to slowly pull on each of the threads, remembering what happened before or after this episode, what exactly caused certain actions and words.
It is also worth noting that it is not always possible to remember the past in this way, especially what happened in childhood. In this case, you need to seek the help of a psychologist and undergo a hypnosis session. In this situation, this is the most effective way to reliably reproduce the events that occurred in memory.
Remembering a forgotten word
It also happens in our lives that we forget this or that word. Just a couple of minutes ago it was on the tip of our tongue, but now we can’t pronounce it. What to do in such a situation? Naturally, try to remember, although there are other options for solving this problem. So let's talk about how to remember a word.
First of all, it can be replaced with a synonym. Of course, if this word is a term or a name, then this option will not suit you. In this case, we try to gather our thoughts and try to remember at least part of it, the sound associations that this concept evokes in you.
Another option is to simply forget about this word, don’t get hung up on remembering it, and in a couple of minutes it will definitely appear in your head.
How to remember what you forgot
© Syda Productions
Create a signal.
It will be easier for you to encode information into long-term memory if it is associated with a specific detail that will serve as a “signal”.
It's best to tie new information to things you already remember well.
For example, if you are talking to a friend in a coffee shop and she tells you that her birthday is coming up, relate this information to something you know. For example, " Alice said her birthday is September 2nd, which is a week after my mother's birthday
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Sensory information can also serve as a signal. For example, smells evoke vivid memories for many people.
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For example, the smell of pies mentally transports us to our grandmother’s house. If a memory can be associated with a smell, such as the aroma of buns in a cafe, stimulate your memory with a similar smell.
Repeat information immediately
If you, like most people, forget names as soon as you are introduced to a new acquaintance, try saying the name out loud as soon as you meet someone
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Try to associate his name with many details. What the person looked like, what he was wearing - all this will help you remember his name later. For example, “ Nice to meet you, Marina, the blue color of your blouse suits you very well.”
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Create a specific order of departure and arrival
Chances are, every time you leave the house, you take the same things with you and make sure all appliances are turned off.
Pack your things, check the stove or curling iron, turn off the light. By creating a routine for leaving and arriving, you begin to do many things on autopilot, which means you are less likely to forget something
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Keep things in a specific place
Keep your car keys, wallet, cards and other important items that you always carry with you in the same place.
You can use a special vase or box for these purposes. When leaving home, you will clearly know where all the necessary things are located.
Use stickers
If your child needs to bring a craft to school, place a sticky note in a visible place in their room so they don't forget it in the morning.
Remind yourself of anything that doesn’t fit into your usual order using stickers. It's very convenient to use reminders on your phone.
Training your memory
So, we figured out how to remember what you forgot.
Now let's talk about how we can develop our memory. Of course, the most important thing is that in order to avoid problems with remembering certain things, you should definitely train your memory. To do this, we recommend to your attention several simple but quite effective exercises.
Surely you have heard that nothing trains your memory as well as memorizing poetry or even passages of text. Be sure to try to memorize at least a couple of lines from a variety of books every day. At the same time, it is advisable to pay attention to large texts, memorizing them completely. So, taking any story, learn a paragraph every day, and do not forget to repeat what you have already learned.
The second simple exercise is to replay the events of the past day in your head every night. So, when you go to bed, remember how your day began, then step by step approach the night. Alternatively, you can rewind events in reverse order. This will also be a good exercise for the brain.
And finally, one more exercise for developing memory and attention. Surely you are often on the street - going to school, work, or just walking. With such a pastime, you can also develop certain qualities. To do this, it is enough to simply remember the license plates of passing cars and carry out various mathematical operations on them. In this case, you will never have a question about how to remember your WiFi password or your login.
conclusions
We all face the problem of memory loss. This is quite understandable, because we are not always focused on receiving this or that information, our brain cannot always quickly remember this or that word, phrase, action, and we don’t want to remember some things at all.
In fact, remembering what you have forgotten is quite easy and simple if you follow the recommendations we have given. In addition, if you need to recall rather serious and necessary events in your memory, you can always seek the help of a specialist. As you can see, to answer the question: “How to remember what you forgot?” - not so difficult.
How to remember information so as not to lose it in the future
If a person often experiences sudden memory lapses, he needs to work on the process of remembering correctly. Here psychologists give the following advice:
- you should always associate a memory with a specific place, for example, a cafe or cinema, where it was received, because then it will be easier to resurrect it;
- important information that needs to be remembered should be repeated immediately after receiving it;
- information must be associated with the information that a person already has, using an associative series.
Many psychologists advise training your memory by creating so-called “mind palaces.” This technique of reproducing the necessary information was used by Sherlock Holmes in his famous detective novels. The detective connected all the facts received, even small details, into a single outline, ensuring that one memory followed from another.
To learn the “mind palace” technique, a person needs to pay attention to all the details around him, to any little things that happen to him. Next, these memories need to be recorded using associations, recalling them in detail every day. Psychologists say that this technique helps develop intellectual and analytical abilities. However, it will take several years to study and comprehend it with all the nuances.
We must not forget about the purely physiological needs of the body. Thus, neurons are responsible for the normal processing of information and its preservation. If a person sleeps little or rarely rests, the neurons in his brain slow down or even die. That is why it becomes almost impossible to remember what has been forgotten. In such situations, psychologists advise resting for several hours, after which the lost information will certainly appear.
In a state of severe stress, you may not even try to remember lost information. With an unstable emotional state, new memories are poorly recorded, and old ones are not reproduced. In this case, the person needs to calm down and relax. As soon as the functioning of his nervous system returns to normal, the necessary information will also appear.
The human brain is a complex mechanism that sometimes malfunctions. As a result, a person simply cannot reproduce the information that is stored in his long-term memory. However, by being distracted by other events, devoting time to meditation and sports, a person will be able to reproduce even the smallest details seen or heard once.
Anna, Moscow
