Exercises for Improving Long-Term Memory

Long-term memories are those that you consciously try to retain or those that make an impression on you. Memories such as those you use every day to brush your teeth or drive your car are long-term memories. The strength of your memory depends on the amount of time it takes to retrieve the information from storage in your brain. Exercises that flex the muscle of the brain may help improve long-term memory, according to HelpGuide.org.

Change the Mundane

• Activities such as writing, showering, brushing your teeth or getting dressed use particular pathways in the brain to retrieve the memories needed to perform the activity. Change the way you perform these activities and you change the pathways you use in the brain. For instance, write with your non-dominant hand or get dressed with your eyes closed. This forces your brain to use different senses and skills to perform the activity.

Take a Course

• Take a course in a subject that you are not familiar with to challenge the brain in a new way. The course can be on any topic that you are not familiar with, but does not have to be on a particularly difficult topic. A course on a new style of cooking or a foreign language you have no knowledge of can exercise your brain and improve your long-term memory capabilities. Language-learning courses are one exercise that can stimulate the brain for improved memory, according to Photographic Memory.

Stress Relieving Exercises

• The hippocampus is the part of the brain that processes and stores memories for retrieval. The stress hormone cortisol may damage the hippocampus if stress is not managed. Stress also makes it difficult to concentrate, which limits your ability to collect enough data for long-term memory storage. Managing your stress levels can help improve long-term memory. Regular exercise relieves stress, which can help improve memory.

Mnemonic Exercises

• Mnemonics are cues you can use to trigger a memory, such as a song or rhyme. These exercises are helpful for students struggling to commit large amounts of data to memory, but also help to retain information as long-term memories. The rhyme you learned to remember the number of days in a month in grade school is now a long-term memory that you use to retrieve that information today.