- Relax and rest
Chronic stress has adverse effects on the brain. Over time, stress damages brain cells, damages the hippocampus, and has been linked to memory loss. Therefore, managing stress is one of the best ways to protect your memory.
Meditation and listening to music may be effective strategies to relieve stress and reverse early memory loss in elderly patients with cognitive decline.
In one study, meditation and listening to music significantly improved subjective memory function and objective cognitive performance over a three-month period. Memory and cognitive gains persisted or increased further up to 3 months after the intervention.
Twenty-five minutes a day of mindfulness meditation and hatha yoga has also been found to have a positive effect on mood, improving brain function and cognitive performance.
Do you like graffiti or photography? These hobbies can serve as tools to aid recall. In one study, scribbling during a boring task improved recall by 29 percent compared to a task without scribbling, while in another, taking pictures improved performance on a visual memory task.
Finally, if you find that you relax a certain aroma, you might want to try rosemary essential oil. Children who participated in the memory game in a room filled with rosemary scored significantly higher than those in a room with no smell.
