Memory

How important, asked BrainMind, is a good memory?

Of all the things that we possess, our memory's the very best
Of every single thing we own, memory's ours and ours alone
It's everything we've ever learned, it's all the lessons that we've earned
It's everything we've ever done, it's all the pain and all the fun.
Our memory gives us special powers, its use can save us countless hours
Most times it tells us what to do, unless the circumstance is new
But once we've done it we can again, upon our memory we depend
To release our minds so we can be, creators of reality.

Bert was a pretty successful guy. He had a great wife, a couple of wonderful kids and a thriving law practice in West Los Angeles. But there was one thing that bugged him; he had the most difficult time remembering people's names. It wasn't everybody. He remembered his family of course, and he always remembered his clients. It was all the other people. Like the guy he played golf with that one time, or the couple he was introduced to at the party. He could remember everything about them, where they lived, what they did, how they looked, everything; except for their names. He was always able to get around it, which took more intelligence then remembering would have, but it bothered him a lot that he couldn't remember names. He knew he had a good memory. After all, he did pass the bar exam first time out, but this name thing really got him. When Bert heard about Alpha he thought, "This might be just the thing. If it can help me remember people's names then it will be the find of a lifetime."

Bert closed his eyes, imagined his heart drifting up into his head and then went to a peaceful place. He imagined that he was snorkeling in the warm aquamarine waters of the Caribbean. Brilliant multi-colored fish swam by just inches out of reach. There was a wonderful sense of freedom that came with floating under the water. Then in Alpha, Bert asked himself a question. "Why has it been so difficult for me to remember people's names?" The answer came in a visualization. Bert saw himself going up to the front door of a lovely home that he recognized belonged to Ken, a good friend of his. When he knocked on the door, Ken opened it and said, "Bert, it's great to see you, come in, come in". He walked Bert over to a group of four men and began to make introductions.

He said, "Bert, I want you to meet some other friends of mine, Bert I'd like you to meet, and then Ken rattled off four names. As he did this, Bert noticed that he wasn't paying attention to the names Ken was saying at all. All he was hearing, really loudly, in his mind was, "I'LL NEVER REMEMBER THEIR NAMES!" Bert woke himself up and thought about what he had seen. He realized that although he wasn't remembering names, it really wasn't his memory's fault. The names were never really getting into his memory bank because he was blocking them out. He was doing this by thinking with so much passion, and certainty, "I'LL NEVER REMEMBER THEIR NAMES!!!"

The next thing that Bert did was go back to Alpha, to his underwater peaceful place, to do another Alpha process. This time he imagined the same scenario with a different ending. This time when Ken introduced the four men, he listened very carefully to their names, and even imagined something silly to help him remember.

Ken said, "Bert, I'd like you to meet Bill, (Bert imagined "PAID" stamped on Bill's forehead), Frank, (Bert imagined Frank had a frankfurter for a nose), John (Bert imagined a toilet flush as one of John's ears), and Harry (Bert imagined Harry had hair growing all over his body). Bert then imagined saying to the four men, "Bill, Frank, John, Harry, so nice to meet you," and then he imagined thinking, with great confidence "I KNOW I AM REMEMBERING THEIR NAMES!"

Next Bert imagined that it was some later date and he saw the four men at another occasion. He imagined walking right up to them and saying, "Bill, Frank, John, Harry, so nice to see you guys again." Bert was proud of himself for remembering, and he knew that from then on, he would easily remember people's names. With few exceptions, he was right.

Perhaps the most valuable thing that we possess is our memory. It allows us to learn from our mistakes and thus enables us to continue to grow. Its contents help to dictate the attitudes and behaviors that we utilize when we face the world. Your long-term memory is perfect. It is the bank, the permanent storage house for all the information that you have ever paid attention to. There are things that come into short term memory (usually only seconds long) and never make it into long-term permanent storage. If information gets into long term memory, you have it forever. However, your recall of that information can mess up sometimes. The problem is in recall, not in memory. We remember millions of things for every one thing that we forget. There are an unlimited number of ways to remember things and there are only two possible ways to forget.

One way that we forget things is called the "tip-of-the-tongue" syndrome. In this situation, under pressure, the brain produces High Beta Waves and the filter closes down, and the information comes up and hits the filter.
The harder you try to remember, the tighter the filter closes. It is only when you finally relax and move into Alpha, the state of Focused Passion, that the stress goes away, that the filter opens back up again.

The other way that we forget things is when we create a block to remembering. Often we do this by saying, "I have a terrible memory,." and then agreeing with that suggestion. Blocks can be more specific such as, "I can never remember names" or "I'm terrible with dates." We also create blocks by thinking, "History is boring," or "Algebra puts me to sleep."

We often blame our memory when it is not our memory's fault. You begin to leave a meeting, you walk to the door, and then you say, "Oh, I forgot my briefcase." The truth is that you just remembered your briefcase, and really could have used the opportunity to say something positive about your memory. If we only pay attention to our memory when it fails, it is liable to fail just to get our attention. Compliment your memory at every opportunity. Whenever you remember anything difficult, or anything from a long time ago, make sure to say to yourself, "Good Memory". Whenever you see someone else exhibit a great memory, compliment them and think, me too. Your memory improves each and every time you reinforce it. When someone else remembers to do something that you asked him to do, compliment him on their good memory. This reminds you that you have a wonderful memory too. We remember what we pay attention to. If, when we are introduced to people, make powerful associations, you are much more likely to remember the names.

PAST RECOLLECTIONS

Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and imagine your heart drifting up into your head. Then imagine a peaceful place. Make this quiet peaceful place you've chosen seem as real as you can. Imagine a very special time from your past. Remember where you were and who, if anyone, was with you. Get in touch with what you were doing at the time. Remember exactly what you were seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, tasting and feeling at the time. Begin to realize just how wonderful your ability to remember things really is. Let your mind switch to another time, and then another. Realize that you have thousands and thousands of these passionate times stored up inside you. Whenever it feels comfortable for you, take a deep breath, open your eyes, come wide awake. Then get yourself up and with passion, take your next action step.

KEYS TO RECALL

Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and imagine your heart drifting up into your head. Then imagine a peaceful place. Make this quiet peaceful place you've chosen seem as real as you can. Imagine that you are returning home from being out on an errand. Imagine taking your keys and setting them down somewhere in your house. As you put them down, imagine that for just a moment you stare at that spot and inside your mind you yell "KEYS". When it is time to leave again, notice how easy it is to remember where you put your keys. Realize that with this simple technique you will always be able to remember where you put your keys as well as anything else you wish to be able to locate. Think of other things that this technique will assist you with. Whenever it feels comfortable for you, take a deep breath, open your eyes, come wide awake. Then get yourself up and with passion, take your next action step.

I JUST REMEMBERED

Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and imagine your heart drifting up into your head. Then imagine a peaceful place. Make this quiet peaceful place you've chosen seem as real as you can. Imagine a situation where in the past you would have said "I forgot (something)". Imagine another situation and yet another. Begin to realize just how often you used to say those words, "I forgot". Imagine that instead from this moment on you find yourself saying, "I just remembered (something)". Feel really proud of yourself because you realize that you have taken a major step toward improving your recall ability. Hear yourself saying over and over, "I just remembered", "I just remembered". Feel the pride inside yourself for making this all important change in your language and your memory. Whenever it feels comfortable for you, take a deep breath, open your eyes, come wide awake. Then get yourself up and with passion, take your next action step.

MEMORY TEST

Close your eyes, take a deep breath, and imagine your heart drifting up into your head. Then imagine a peaceful place. Make this quiet peaceful place you've chosen seem as real as you can. Imagine that you are taking a test. This test measures how well you remember information that you have studied. In your imagination, step outside yourself and, from a distance, observe yourself taking the test. Watch as your pen moves quickly across the answer sheet. Notice the smile on your face and the twinkle in your eye. Get the sense that you are remembering everything. See yourself finish and watch as you check to be sure that your answers are correct. Notice how you nod and smile with each correct answer that you check. Get in touch with how it feels to be a great test taker. Enjoy that feeling of confidence and competence as you count yourself from zero to five and return to the present.

Focus brings to bear the power of the conscious mind, and Passion brings to bear the power of the subconscious mind. When the two minds come together in harmony, something magical happens. They create a third mind; a higher consciousness. This is literally a second level of thinking. With Focused Passion, all the power is in the second level of thinking. You get to think about your individual thoughts and feelings, and choose to empower the positive ones, and choose to release the negative ones. In this way you come to enjoy all of your thoughts and all of your feelings. Do this and you will discover that there is a side effect. It is called happiness. Happiness is not about your particular circumstances. Happiness is not about your initial thoughts. Happiness comes from what you think, about what you think.

Here is a simple and powerful technique for creating the state of Focused Passion. Focus comes when you move away from stress, just a little of the way toward sleep. Passion comes when you enjoy what you are doing.

Focus Passion is moving from divided attention (multi-tasking) to paying attention to just one special thing. Do this and you slow down your mind. You move toward stress when you feel endangered. To move into Focused Passion you need to feel safe.

Close your eyes.

Most of the input that comes in through your five senses comes in through your eyes. Close your eyes and you slow down your mind. It's the first thing you do when you want to fall asleep. Focused Passion can be reached with your eyes open, but closing your eyes cuts out many of the potential distractions.

Take a deep breath and imagine that you are in a very safe and peaceful place.

By making this safe place, a place that you love to be, you add passion to your state of focus. When you feel stressed you tighten your muscles and hold your breath. Release your muscle tension and let go of your breath and you will begin to feel safe. Choose this place with your intuition. Let it be the first safe place that comes in to your mind. Imagine that you can see this place, or that you can hear the surrounding sounds. Simply pretend and get the feeling that you are there. If your mind goes off to a different place, just notice this and then bring yourself back to your first place. Always return to this same place each time you wish to re-create this state of Focused Passion.

With Focused Passion you can solve the only two problems that you face. One problem is that you know what you want, but you don't know how to get it, and the only other problem is that you don't know what you want.

When you don't know what you want, you go to your place of Focused Passion and you ask. Then you listen for the answer. This is called meditation, introspection, reflection, or prayer. If you believe in a higher power then you might believe that the answer comes through you. If you don't believe in a higher power then you might believe that the answer comes from you. Either way the process is the same. You ask, and then you listen for the answer.

If you do know what you want, then you tell. You imagine what you do want, as if you already have it, over and over again, with GREAT PASSION! This is called mental programming, visualization, self-hypnosis, or auto-suggestion. It is an application of the amazingly powerful law of attraction.

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with far less stress, and much more passion?

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