Memory: How Do We Strengthen It?

It is within every person's power to strengthen his memory. Memory is closer to being an art — contrary, to some extent, to what certain people believe, namely that it is a gift created with a person, or bestowed by fate on whom it wills. I do not mean that a person can increase the cells of his brain; but he can improve the power of memory to a great degree. Just as one can strengthen his body with athletic games, so can he develop the memory with mental exercise and by following methods that help him bring the past back onto the stage of thought. How many, how many people are ignorant of the ways that lead to the improvement of this faculty, and surrender to saying, "God created me without a memory," while others impugn their own capacity, saying, "My memory betrayed me." By such notions and acts a man opens the way to the idleness of his memory; at times he fails to recall the names of his friends, for instance, and then loses confidence in himself, an inferiority complex forms within him, the apparatus of recollection rusts like any machine left without use, and the person loses one of the most important factors of progress and success in life.

Memory is counted among the most important elements of success, for all public and private affairs and all the demands of life require a ready wit — especially in this age of ours, the age of speed, movement, and progress. Every person can, by practice, invigorate the power of memory within him once he learns the ways and means that lead to it. There are many such methods, on which scholars are almost agreed, the most important being:

1 - That a person fix in his mind that what he reads or hears must be remembered, or begin recalling it immediately after reading or hearing it. In this state the memory is quick-witted and more sensitive in catching what one wants it to remember. The news and events, or the names of friends, that we want to remember take root in our minds far more than the things we care nothing about; for we generally remember the things we truly want to remember.

2 - Creating a link between the things we want to remember and familiar, real things, or between them and our aims and hopes for the future; or by inventing artificial links and associations of time or place. If you make the acquaintance of a new person, try comparing his name with the name of a close friend, or try comparing the meaning of his name with the shapes of his face or body or his manners, or link him with the place where the acquaintance was made — recollection thus becomes easy, and we have also enlisted the senses to help us bring back the past. Italy, for example, resembles a boot; a man called Jamil may be handsome of face, or the opposite; a man called Nakhleh may be a dwarf; and you may make the acquaintance of a Wasim on a moonlit night, and he may be joined in memory with his house in the shade of a leafy grove.

3 - It is preferable that a person repeat aloud, and say over again, the things he wishes to remember, after making sure he has heard them correctly. How often I marveled at my professor of psychology: she had an uncanny power of remembering things, especially people's names, and the method she followed was to make sure of hearing the name, then to repeat it, addressing the person by his name during the conversation, thereby studying his traits and movements, even the color of his eyes and the features of his face. And after time has folded the incident away, there returns to her, whenever she wishes to remember, a clear and limpid picture in whose formation most of the incidents took part, making it easy to bring back onto the stage of thought.

4 - Finally, avoid mental stagnation. Always try to solve the riddles of some superior detective novels, or some of the games and competitions published by certain magazines or newspapers; or try to discover something new every day. For example, try to recall the things you saw on the road, or remember the house you visited; and the more exactness of detail you seek in what you remember, the better it will be. The practice of hobbies, too, especially in leisure hours, invigorates a person's mental faculties.

Exactness of memory, reliance upon it, and the following of these methods pave the way of success before you and add esteem and admiration to the personality; for the muscle of thought (the brain), like all the muscles of man, is strengthened by exercise and weakened by neglect.