Memory exercises, brain training

After reading Dooley's blog entry about memory I thought I'd ask if anyone has any great brain training tips / memory exercises to get by in daily life. Personally I believe that it is a misconception that our mental power or capacity to remember things dimishes with time. I think people just believe that myth and subsequently think it is normal to allow their minds to get lazy.

I think games like crosswords and sudoku are great to help us kick our brains into gear and also performing mental arithmetic in our heads rather than reaching for our calculators also helps.

Personally when I need to remember a list I like to come up with a funny rhyme or something that incorporates the first letter of the items in the list. I also link mental images (the more ridiculous the better) to the items and this can reinforce it. I believe anybody can do this, it just a bit hard to get used to at first but after a while it will become second nature.

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