An Ancient Technique That Can Dramatically Improve Your Memory

I have been using this method for three years and forget almost nothing

Forgetfulness is a plague we have all been cursed with at least once in our life. From brain games, puzzles, meditation, and remedies, we have been searching for a means to an end of memory blockage or loss.

When you are starting a book, business, blog, anything of importance, it’s essential to have an impressive memory to be able to store information.

True story, I once forgot to buy a book about how to remember what you read, irony at its best.

I have a toddler, and that seems to have affected my memory even more than before, I believe its called mommy brain? Yeah, that.

I recently (within the past few years) took it upon myself to study ancient techniques used for meditation and mindfulness. I even went as far as creating my form of water meditation called Folamh Féin.

However, my love for ancient ritualistic self-help drove me to look up the old method of Loci, a strategy used in ancient Rome and Greece for maintaining and deepening your memory, by creating a mind palace.

The Method of Loci

Loci mean “places” in Latin and is a mode of memory enhancement by creating visualizations in familiar spatial environments.

They use the mnemonic device (meaning “of memory” in ancient Rome) is a method of retaining or retrieving memories.

At first, it sounds confusing. However, after I explain, you will be able to unlock an almost superhuman ability of memory.

How to use Loci/your mind palace

What is a mind palace?

A mind palace is a familiar location (your kitchen, bedroom, etc.) that you can easily remember and map out in your mind.

Got a place picked? Good. Now, are you able to mentally walk through that location and recall it’s characteristics? Not all pieces need to be remembered. For example, I use my bedroom. However, I have 7–10 significant items (bed, TV, carpet, etc.) that I use, not small spontaneous objects that you don’t recall often. Try and stick to objects that you won’t forget.

Make your route

Now that you have picked your location for your mind palace, it’s time for you to choose your route.

What I mean by route, is the mental path you will take each time you visit your mind palace. Your route has to be ordered (my bed is #1, my TV is #2, etc.) so that you are capable of keeping things organized and not jumbling up your memories.

If this still sounds confusing, just keep reading, I promise you’ll get it.

Your route should be easy to remember, it is the path that you will to take every time you visit your mind palace.

Practice

Practicing Your route is vital, just like driving to work, you go the way you are familiar with – detouring down side streets may get you there, but you most likely will get lost first.

A few times a day, or more, you should visit your mind palace (mentally) and walk your chosen path. With mine, I walk through the front door and see my couch (item #1), then I walk straight towards my TV (TV item #2) so on and so forth.

Practice your route until you are mentally able to walk and locate each item of choice in order, every time.

Add your information

Now here’s the fun part. Adding your information.

Each piece of information you want to add has to be an exaggeration of what it really is, to better help with the visualization of memory.

To add information (things you’d like to remember), this is what you have to do:

1. I want to remember that tomorrow my apples will expire.
2. I go to my mind palace and go to my first item on my route, the couch (item#1.)
3. Make an exaggerated visual. Since it’s my apples going bad, I will choose to visualize a huge decaying apple on my couch, climbing into a trash can. Crazy, I know.

You can do this with multiple memories. The Greeks and Romans were capable of remembering thousands of names, numbers, etc. From filling their mind palace with this method.

When you see your couch, the first thing you will see is a giant decaying apple jumping into a trash can. It takes practice, but soon you will be able to work it like it’s a filing cabinet. I have three mind palaces (my home, my favorite watering hole, and my backyard.) All of which I use daily. And I am not kidding when I say, I haven’t forgotten anything in a long time.

Using Loci for remembering names

Aside from using your mind palace, you can use the same technique (Loci) to remember anything when you are out and about.

Remembering names, is one of the greatest flaws of my existence. Well, it was.

Here is how you use Loci when meeting someone new. 9/10 we hear the name, and within seconds, we forget.

1. You see a woman; she says, “Hi, my name is Anna.”
2. Keep that name in your mind, and then pay attention to the woman. You want to link her name, with something about her, visually.
3. Anna has on a yellow shirt! That reminds me of a banana! (Anna-Banana!)
4. Or, the letter A in Anna looks like a point. Anna has a very pointy chin.
5. Imagine the chin being a point like the later A.
6. When you see Anna again, mentally, your brain will Alert you that, hey! That’s Anna! (The point of the A reminds you of her chin.)

Using Loci for remembering tasks

I like to use my mind palace for tasks, but you can also just use the method of Loci.

Say, you have a lot of emails to send out to colleagues, and you also have to call your boss Joe – don’t forget you have to make a birthday cake for your son!

This is how you would incorporate Loci to remember everyday tasks.

1. Pick a place you see every day (it could be your mind palace or the street you jog each morning.)
2. Let’s say you jog each morning down the same street. Visualize that street.
3. What’s the first thing that catches your eye on that jog? (memorable landmarks, bushes, houses, etc.)
4. Ok, the first thing could be a bright red mailbox. You always notice it. Remember, you have to send a lot of emails. So, visualize that mailbox exploding with mail, emails flying out of the front like water! And it’s red, like an emergency sign!
5. Do so with any task you have, by associating a task (memory) with an object (visualize it attached to something on your walk.)
6. You always get a cup of coffee after your jog, a cup of Joe. Call your boss, Joe!
7. On your jog, you always see the same fluffy white dog; he looks like cake frosting, picture the dog as a giant cake topper. Make your son’s cake!

Eventually, this will come so naturally to you that you won’t have to even think about it. You will go on your morning jog and remember every task.

Takeaway

We all have issues from time to time with memory — forgetfulness is easily avoidable through brain training. The ancient method of Loci, along with the use of a mind palace, has become a natural reinforcement for me. I use it even when I don’t realize I use it from remembering photography sessions, parenting hacks, and article ideas.

We can learn a lot from ancient civilizations; all of our knowledge of math, the stars, memory, etc. have come from the ancient civilizations.

About 40% of people aged 65 or older have age associated memory impairment — in the United States, about 16 million people. Only about 1% of them will progress to dementia each year.

Memory loss can be easily avoided by only training your brain. It’s proven through disciplining your mind; you can severely curb a decline in memory loss. Mnemonic devices, such as Loci and mind palaces, are a form of brain training.

This is a creative way to remember lists. Mnemonic devices can take the form of acronyms (such as RICE to remember first-aid advice for injured limbs: Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation) or sentences (such as the classic “Every good boy does fine” to remember the musical notes E, G, B, D, and F on the lines of the treble clef). For older learners, a particularly helpful approach is a story mnemonic — a brief narrative in which each item cues you to remember the next one. For example, the sentence “The dog knocked over my glass of milk so I have to wash the floor” could remind you that your dog has a vet appointment, you should pick up your new glasses, and you need to buy milk and floor cleaner.