How to use meditation & adrenaline to improve your memory • Little known superhuman from Bajau tribe • The highest compliment
- Improve your memory (PART 3) - Meditation & sleep, emotion & adrenaline
- Little known superhuman from Bajau tribe
- The highest compliment
"Improve your memory" series recap:
Part 1: Spaced repetition • Exercise
Part 2: Visual images (and deja vu)
Thing 1 - Improve your memory (PART 3) - Meditation & sleep, emotion & adrenaline
If you're pressed for time, skip down to Emotion & Adrenaline.
Meditation
Dr. Wendy Suzuki did the research and it turns out you should...
Meditate for 13 minutes every day for 8 weeks.
It has a significant effect on improving
- attention
- memory
- mood
- emotion regulation
This sounds great, Z, but it's much more than just improving memory - can I just do, like, 4 weeks to get the memory or sth?
Yeah, no. It's all or nothing. 4 weeks won't do. I wish I was joking...
On the positive side, once you form the habit and start getting the benefits, why would you ever stop 🙂
The downside of meditation (so you can make excuses for not meditating) is that it makes your sleep worse if you do it before sleep.
Why? Because it improves alertness.
Solution: meditate soon after you wake up.
Did I just take your excuse away? Yeah. Sorry, not sorry. I want you to be better 😜
Sleep
Sleep is when information is committed to long-term memory.
Get great sleep a few hours after the learning session.
A nap or a non-sleep deep rest (NSDR) also does the trick.
Why not right away when you finish? You're about to find out.
Emotion & Adrenaline
If you were a kid in Medieval times, they'd throw you in a river if they wanted you to remember an important event that happened.
And they were right! What?!
You're gonna get mad at me now, but you've been doing your caffeine intake wrong your whole life.
...if your goal was to improve memory.
Think back on your strongest memories of experiences. They all have some strong emotions tied to them.
You'll also remember information better if it's written in an emotionally intense way. Even when the information is the same.
Why does that happen?
It's because of adrenaline release. Title killed the surprise here, hasn't it?
How can we use it?
Spike your adrenaline right after (5-15 min tops) you're done repeating information you want to memorize.
Ways you can spike your adrenaline:
- Place your arm in cold water
- Cold shower
- Intense workout
- Caffeine
- Alpha-GPC
- Phosphatidylserine
If you're not used to a substance, check with your doctor and start with the minimal effective dose. But you don't need to take any substances since you can achieve the effect without them.
Like any other average person, you've been taking your coffee before you started learning.
This isn't the best thing for memory because it's not the total amount of adrenaline you have in your system that improves memory - it's the difference between the amount you had a few hours before and when the spike occurs.
3 Step protocol
- Keep calm when you start (adrenaline level low) - use light exercise if you need to increase alertness.
- Spike the adrenaline near the end of the session
- Get great sleep (nap or NSDR works too)
(source)
Thing 2 - Little known superhuman from Bajau tribe
This has strong planet Synnax from "Foundation" (by Isaac Asimov) vibes. (The water planet Gaal is from).
This dude dives 20 m (65 feet) deep, slows his heart to 30 bpm, walks on the ocean floor to hunt fish.
Bajau tribe story is something you can dive into too. More here
Thing 3 - The highest compliment
Something every nerdy kid needs to know:
As people mature, they'll be drawn to you more for how you think than how you look.
In adulthood, there's no higher compliment than being someone's braincrush. They're attracted to your vibrant mind, not the container it comes in.
- Adam Grant
And then you'll wonder "da heck am I busting my ass for this smokin' body?"
Because of health benefits, of course. 😉
Alright, time to commit information to long-term memory.
Cheers, Zvonimir