Memory Improvement – 1)
Sufficient sleep

Not having enough sleep is a barrier to concentration and learning. On those days where you had insufficient rest and sleep, were you as productive at work or in school? Did you remember more and retain more, or did you brain feel fuzzy?

2) Balanced Meals

The experts have stressed, over and over again, that a good, balanced meal is therapy for stressed-out and burned-out lives. Good, healthy eating is essential for our memory to function at an optimal rate. Without the fuel our body needs, how can we expect our mind to be at its peak performance? Fresh and vegetables should fill your plate. According to researchers, those who eat breakfast have heightened powers of recalls than those who skip this important meal of the day.

3) Fresh Air

To benefit from fresh air, learn to breathe properly, and to be concerned about the air quality in our homes and offices. This means that as much as possible, we should have a window open while working, maintaining a comfortable temperature in the room. Stale air that is not allowed to circulate properly affects our concentration and mental processing abilities.

4) Physical Exercise

Not many people appreciate aerobics or weight-lifting. If you’re one of them, go for long walks or swim laps. The idea is to exercise at least 30 minutes per session most days of the week.

5) Alcohol and Smoking

Big NO! The famous “hang-over” we talk about after a night of partying and “boozing-up” can impair our thinking, concentration and memory. For our memory to work, eliminate alcohol and smoking from your routine especially if you do it to excess. An occasional slip-up may “produce a mere memory blip, but long-term abuse can mess up your mind in various unpleasant ways. Loss of memory will certainly be one of them.”[201 In Chapter Fifteen of this e-book, we have prepared a worksheet for memory building exercises, culled from a few works from recognized experts on the subject.

Memletics: Hype or Truth?

Memletics should not be confused with mnemonics, although the two are closely linked. Mnemonics has been in use for several decades but it won’t hurt to “refresh our memory” a bit: mnemonics is a memory helper and serves an educational purpose. Most of it is verbal and special words or phrases (and sometimes even poems) to help an individual remember something – as in lists. Mnemonics presupposes that there are two kinds of memory: natural (the one we’re born with) and artificial (the mind training tools we learn, practice and use to remember a considerable amount of data). Some people have advanced the idea that memory feats could be achieved with a properly-trained mind that the natural memory may be incapable of achieving. Memletics is an offshoot of the revolution that gave rise to many memory and learning techniques that have been created, designed and marketed by individuals and companies. The entrepreneurs who came up with Memletics – which they define as an accelerated learning program – say that it is really all about mental fitness.

Memletics comes from two words: “memory” and “athletics.” It rests on the principle of mental fitness as the triggering factor for better learning and better memory through the use and application of several approaches. The developers call it an integrated learning system that enhances brain performance. The brain has a vast reserve of “raw material” and the course aims to help individuals process this raw material, so that unused powers of the brain come to the forefront. The company who developed Memletics claims that it is a unique program because it compiles the research findings from different undertakings. involving human performance. An improved memory is one that is mentally fit. And it is this degree of mental fitness that determines a person’s ability to learn and remember new information. We have read a few testimonials from people who have taken the Memletics program – some have praised it for producing a marked improvement in their memory. The Memletics developers explain that just as you don’t expect to run a marathon after having jogged a week, you can’t expect these mind training techniques to instantly endow you with a photographic memory. Your muscles take time to develop, and for them to reach their full potential, you have to use them consistently over a sustained period of time. The same holds true for your brain, which as you know, is also a muscle which needs to be trained. This is one testimonial that was obviously written by a student: “I was searching for study tools. I was randomly googling for learning tools, accelerated learning, memory techniques etc. Suddenly I came across one site http://www.learning-styles-online.com. This site has a learning styles inventory test. It is a 70 questions test with simple questions. I did that test and they showed my inclination about how my learning abilities are less in some areas and how they can be improved. On this site I got the link site http://www.memletics.com which they explain as Memory Athletics.”[21]

Two more testimonials (this time from individuals who purchased the manual/book from Amazon: “I am a professional investment advisor with a national firm (for 12 years) and have a four year degree from a major university in Finance. My advice to you is to NOT invest your dollars here! I bought this book because I am studying for the CFP (Certified Financial Planner) exam. I fell for the hype from the back page of the book, and I am embarrassed because I should have known better than to trust these sources I’d never heard of; hokey testimonials. I also failed to really evaluate that Amazon average “5 star” customer review. Ouch. It must’ve been late that night. If you want slightly above juvenile writing ability, a couple hundred pages of hackneyed phrases, goofy charts and pictures, and pathetic documentation, you’ll find these attributes in “Memletics.” At $50 a copy, this book is a real rip-off! It represents little more than slick marketing (legit looking cover/techy-sounding title) of a hodge-podge of information that is, for the most part, at least twenty years old. The index to this book was my first clue that the author is at best a hack (it is out of sync with the book…if it says “noise and concentration” p 34, it’s really on pg 32…). Basic errors like this set the tone for worse things to come (like the horrible writing). It’s like one of those “vanity press” cookbooks only worse.”[22] We had to extract only the relevant comments for the book review but we have provided the link in the footnote so you can read the entire review, if you wish.

Here is the last testimonial from a Chinese student who is studying to be a doctor and who also bought it from Amazon. “FYI, it did not seem to be a great book when I first skimmed it. I’m skeptical. But, then I made straight A’s. Now I need to go back and pay attention to it! This book changed my life. I was getting stressed out. I’m middle aged, back in school and working. I know I’m trying to do too much. But, I want to go to school and I have to work. I want to do it all. But it was clear I could not keep it up, I was stressing. Then, finally, a system that works. So I can get good grades, and more importantly learn! I just knew there had to be a better way, and this is it. Before this book, I was struggling. I’m in Chinese medical School. It is fact intensive, complex and intense. Classes are ‘taught by Doctors who are not teachers. My grades were good, but I was working too hard, and spending hours and hours at re-learning things I kept forgetting. I had no time to question, what I was being told, or to understand. Worse, tests were full of questions that expected me to see relationships. Now, I can get thru it all. Now, I know what to do and how to do it. Memletics is especially good when there are just too many facts to cram in my brain. So far, it is a great book, but I’ve just started to use it. It has more to offer, that I have not tried yet.[23] In reading the description of the Memletics course program, it does say that without much mental effort on the part of the user, their product cannot improve memory. They warn people to stay away from a product that promises to improve memory without effort. They compare it to taking a weight pill without exercising. Therefore, based on the testimonials we came across, one individual out of three gave a negative review. No doubt it has helped improve the learning and memory abilities of individuals; and these individuals most likely performed the exercises asked of them. People who seek treatments for their illness report improvement while others lament the side effects of the treatment. It is the same with mind-training tools and approaches. One program may work for some and it may fail for others. The trick is to use your judgment and assess your own progress and skills.

So to answer the question: is Memletics hype or truth? We would have to say, it depends how much you want to gain from it.