Dear reader,
I think Albert Einstein was right when he said, „The
definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again
and expecting different results.” Sadly this happens far to often
and far to quickly when one is looking for something and can't find
it. At least for me anyway. This happened again actually the day
before yesterday.
Normally I keep a couple of things only at very few
specific places and never anywhere else. I taught myself to do that
automatically with my flat keys for example, to avoid looking for
them for long and so I don't lose them. I keep the keys to my dad's
flat, say, almost all the time in a certain backpack and in a
specific inner pocket there. But a few days ago I had them in a
different backpack, haven't been at my dad's, but I was in the
neighbourhood and just in case, I had those keys with me. I did see
those keys in this other, unfamiliar outside pocket several times the
days before two days ago. I knew where they were. In the small
outside pocket of the smaller backpack. I had seen them there the
previous days again and again when I had the backpack in my hand and
the outside pocket had been open. And yet I only checked the bigger
pocket and also repeatedly(!) completely emptied the big backpack. It
took me almost a quarter of an hour to finally take the small
backpack again and for once also check the outside pocket to find the
keys again.
Years ago I was looking for glasses once with blue
tinted eyeglasses, which I have had. But did I have them still? In
the past I had glasses at all times. Only a couple of years ago I
started wearing them only occasionally. That's why I never used the
sunglasses with the tinted eyeglasses. They didn't have the glasses I
would have needed for my eyes sight. Did I have the glasses still? I
checked every possible drawer of two specific cupboards in my room,
also two drawers in the hallway. Several times. Because it's so much
fun and suddenly the biggest things could have become tiny and hidden
and be overlooked. I thought of Einstein checking everything the
second time. After the third time I cursed myself for checking again,
although I had found nothing the first two times already. I thought
to myself, “I'll go to the living-room ask my mum. Maybe I don't
even have the glasses anymore anyway. Checking a 100 times wouldn't
help then. Maybe she knew something. Should I still have the glasses,
I trust my unconscious and wish for to just walk up to the right
drawer to find them there.” I went to my mum. She knew what I was
looking for, but couldn't remember if we still had the glasses or not
or where they might be. I went back to my room. Purposefully I stood
in front of a commode where the guinea pigs and their cage were
sitting on. There is only one drawer there where the glasses might
be, in which I keep necklaces and earrings and also a big magnifying
glass with a horn grip, too. If the glasses were there at all, it
would be in that drawer. The other drawers had paper, note books and
notes. I really pulled out the drawer this time and in the back of a
corner there really was the small blue paper box in which I kept the
blue tinted eyeglasses. I thanked my unconscious for guiding me to
them that way.
Dr. John Watson gives a quite good description of how
the memory palace works in “The Hounds of Baskerville” (Sherlock
season 2, episode 2). Sherlock Holmes knows that he's got important
information in his head “somewhere buried deep”. He tells John
and Dr. Stapleton to get out, he'd go to his mind palace now.
“His what?”, asks Stapleton confused.
John explains to her, “Oh, his mind palace. It's a
memory technique, a sort of mental map. You plot a map with a
location, it doesn't have to be a real place. You deposit memories
there. Theoretically, you never forget anything. All you do is find
your way back to it.
“So this imaginary location could be anything?”,
asks Stapleton. “A house or a street?”
“Yeah”, confirms John.
“But he said "palace"”, bursts out
Stapleton. “He said it was a palace!”
“Yeah, well, he would, wouldn't he?”, says John
almost a bit bored and maybe a bit annoyed that his friend has to
boast with a palace in his head.
The way to information or memories is in fact
important, too and doesn't have to be a mental walk or visual, seen
in your mind. In “Dynamic Learning” by Robert Dilts and Tod
Epstein, Epstein describes his work with an old lady. With her
eyesight fading, she also had difficulties remembering certain
things, which didn't cause problems before. Epstein noticed that the
lad was visualising and thinking in pictures to retrieve memories.
With fading eyesight, it became more difficult for her to see in hear
mind. Epstein helped her getting back to memories through other
senses. Which helped her memory getting better again, too. Before
reading “Dynamic Learning” I only read in Thomas Harrison's books
about the memory palace and after Derren Brown's “Tricks Of The
Mind” I started creating a sort of system for myself. The
suggestion that the way we retrieve information and that the senses
we use for that are relevant as well, was new and an important
aspect. It didn't change anything for me personally, not that I'm
aware of anyway. Nevertheless it is something especially people
working with other people, old people specifically, should keep in
mind. Apparent memory loss doesn't necessarily have anything to do
with not remembering.
Until next blog,
sarah
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