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In order for a mind to be healthy that has to be active. It needs to be exercised regularly to be able to function at its fullest capacity. This is why playing games, like card games or memory games, are so effective at keeping the mind sharp. They are exercise for the brain. Let’s take a look at some games that you can play anywhere.

If there was only a game that asks you 30 to 50 questions that you had the answer before you successfully completed it. If only this game was difficult enough to the point where you would have to pass on most of the questions first time around forcing your short-term memory to store several of them in there at once. And, if only this game was also fun to play. Well, you are in luck. This powerful memory strengthening game does exist. It’s called the crossword puzzle. Get a book of crossword puzzles that also contains several beginner level puzzles. If you’re not used to playing crossword puzzles, you’re going to want some encouragement by being able to complete successfully the first several puzzles that you do. Don’t start off with the New York Times daily crossword puzzle. That one will be to difficult and frustrating.

A good companion to the crossword puzzle is the sudoku puzzle. Like the crossword puzzle, sudoku forces you to keep a lot of information stored in your short-term memory as you work to complete the puzzle. However, this numbers game is going to work out your brain in a different way than a crossword puzzle does because it uses numbers.

To get maximum benefit from these powerful mind exercises try completing two of each everyday starting at the beginner level. If that is too much for you than one crossword puzzle and one sudoku puzzle a day is good enough. The key is to be consistent and do these puzzles every day.

Anna Cox publishes on a mixture of subjects, counting cute belly button ring and fake belly button rings.

Poor memory is not something for just the aged or matured adult, poor memory can affect anyone of any age.  There are many techniques that are available to help improve your memory, however not all are as easy as they like to make it claim to be.  Some require a lot of time, which in reality is partially the reason people tend to have poor memory, lack of time to pay adequate attention to things they need to store in their memory bank. 

Recall is a developed technique that happens within our brain functioning from an early age.  If honed on, it can be quite sharp.  If one is lackey daisy about their memory, as in saying, I will have to make a mental note of that and although their brain may have taken note, they have not sufficiently gave it enough information for recall later when needed; the old memory bank will fail when drawing upon that particular information at a later date.

One method in helping develop a great memory is using a technique called the Link Method.It helps you to recall stored information better due to the way you packed it away at first.  The Link method involves the use of mnemonics, an association between two things or items.  This gives the brain clues to later use in recall of that stored information.  This can be done in word association or by story association. 

Say you are studying for a test, any class, and you have to be able to recall all the bones in the foot.  First, you would write out a list of all the bones in the foot.  After writing the list out which would look something like this:  5 metatarsals for each foot, 14 phalanges for each foot (3 phalanges for each toe per foot except the hallux, which only has 2), Talus, Calcaneus, Navicular, Cuboid, Internal cuneiform, Middle cuneiform, and the External cuneiform for a total of 26 bones per foot. 

Next, you would take the words and put them either in a story form or in a word association form, which ever is easier for you to recall.  In a word association it may be something like 5 metatarsals = 5 mega parcels = I am getting 5 mega parcels (metatarsals) tomorrow from 14 philanders = 14 phalanges.  You would continue in this fashion with word association until you have covered all the necessary words in the list. 

In story association, you tell a story using a combination of word association and a story theme.  It may go something like this:  Five little metatarsals took off on a walk when out of the blue 14 scary looking fanged phalanges jumped out of a bush.  Each had three fangs except the little one, Hallux, who only had two.  Again, you would carry on similar to this until you have used all the listed words.  This is what is known as the Link Method.

The Link Method can be a reliable way to recall things, though it depends on the person remembering the story or the word associations.  However, this method with a combination of other methods can drastically help you improve your memory.  If you are having recall problems, improve your memory by learning valuable memory techniques at Memory Improvement