You Can Learn to Remember: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life pdfdrive com

living through detail
T
he more ambitious approaches to memorization, such as the journey method,
train not only the memory but also the power of concentration. If I am sitting in
a public hall with 20 other competitors trying to memorize the order of 20
randomly shuffled decks of cards – 1,040 pieces of data – I do not have a second
to wonder if I will have time to mail a letter. Concentration must be total, or part
of the mind’s capacity is wasted.
Concentration training, followed through into daily life, sharpens our
awareness of the world around us, and enriches our experience. Imagine that you
are going for a hike in the country, alone. You might be so preoccupied with
your personal concerns that you spend the whole walk wrapped in your own
inner world. Or you might alternate between your own thoughts and the sense

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impressions that crowd in from all sides. Or you might be wholly alert to what
the senses tell you, grounded in the present – and hence able to catch a glimpse
of the woodpecker whose drumming you faintly hear, or to notice a nestling
orchid. It would take a dedicated naturalist to hike without a single thought about
home or work. Yet the point I wish to make is that concentration on the outer
world brings its rewards – opportunities to relish the pleasures of the senses, and
also to put personal issues into a wider perspective.
Living in the details also benefits our relationships. With our partner, our
family and our friends we are engaged in a constant multiple traffic of data, and
we are the poorer for every precious remark lost. With acquaintances, just
remem bering a name gives pleasure. Think how much generosity you can
bestow by referring back in a conversation to what this person told you about
themselves three months ago. Absorbing details of your partner’s changing
circumstances strengthens a bond, just as failing to listen or to notice is all too
often the subject of a first quarrel.
Even household chores can become less burdensome if tackled in a spirit of
total concentration. Memory training makes us more appreciative of the worth of
each moment. Buddhist philosophy recommends “mindfulness” – a type of
meditation in which the mind becomes centred on a single object or task.
Through mindfulness we appreciate the object or task for itself – we see the
beauty in a grain of rice, or the value of a mundane action such as sweeping the
yard. When our minds are focused in this way, we automatically relax –
mindfulness frees us from the confusion of whirling thoughts.