Page 2 …tend to assume “attitudes” that lean on those inner resources. This is a common, regular, occurrence, in our lives, and will continue until much later on, until the “wear and tear” starts becoming apparent. This entire phenomenon is experienced by all people, to some degree, but varies, immensely, from person to person, in ‘degree’ of severity, areas of life most affected, etc.

All of this is considered as a normal, natural, process, that is an important part of our lives. Nevertheless, that doesn’t stop us from trying to avoid unnecessary wear and tear, on ourselves. This, too, is normal and natural. All things must be considered, ‘by degree’! This is a fundamental basis for the proper application of memory.

Conscious application of memory

It is human tradition to put much emphasis on the need to build on, expand, improve, etc., so that we may take better advantage, of our brains. This is wonderful, but always, remember…we have much (more) going on, under the surface. Let’s consider some general ‘theatres of activity’ that we put our minds to work in:

Guiding principals… (standards, morals, etc.)…The first (conscious) large-scale scenario, we envisioned, was one enabling us to expand exploration of areas of knowledge and understanding, while, at the same time, safeguarding and strengthening our ‘known’ position, in this life. The need to expand horizons necessitates a need to envision all that we may expect to find, ahead, in life…and in a way that relates to the security of ourselves and our ‘support base’ (i.e. family, friends, etc.). In other words, we must be able to find substantial, ‘positive’ aspects in what we encounter. According to how great or small our expectations are, we do measure and categorize all (encountered) people and situations. Many of both seem to fall far short, in our estimation. Rationalizing, we compare other people to the way we see ourselves, fundamentally. We begin (unconsciously, at first) to “look up” to some, and “down” on others. Similarly, we look at situations with an attitude that “helps” us rate the relative importance of these. During all this, we gradually (unconsciously) form a “model” for how (we believe) other people should tend to ’see’ such things. Progressing, in our experience, we establish a kind of “moral-standard system”, for our life. Most of the stronger influences in early childhood came from those closest to us. From the start, those began to strongly suggest, in very effective ways, “guidelines” for us to follow. In most cases, these same people were raising (or otherwise relating to) us, in their environment…one in which they had much influence (at least, when compared with ours).

Embracing and developing such standards was, probably, the single-most important conscious mental activity, in our lives (in as much as such “ideals” are created from the “whole cloth” of life’s realities). This, being so fundamental, in early life, encouraged us to continue trying to see and utilize our “moral standards system” appropriately, and to look at it clearly. Also, as we leaned on our belief in this system, we had a base to “kick off” from… and can be less hesitant, to go forward at critical moments. This served us well, for the most part, thus we want to “strengthen and build” on this “life-tool”. To that end, will we continue to direct our efforts, during many “life experiences”… especially those involving relations with others.

Master Plans…The “master plans”, of life, are about the basic, long range goals, we set for ourselves, even as small children. Most of us had dreams for our future. In as much as we consciously thought about and formulated “dream plans” they became the first “master plans” for our life. With time, we may have re-thought/adjusted them, but the fundamentals remained. During moments of clarity, we knew that the most elemental aspects of our “dream for life’ were (for the most part) above reproach.

A “master plan”, of course (in addition to the obvious) subtly, influences everything we do. Nevertheless, at times, without knowing why, we seem to be working in opposition to ‘that plan’. Here, we must, quickly, discern a reason for this and push on. But, if our reasoning fails to respond with clarity, it is time for serious thought. We must, always, maintain the ‘integrity’ of our plan, so that it may continue to serve us, well. When we are able to focus, again, on what we really should be doing with our lives, the need to nourish our master plan, with some real progress, becomes clear. Such a critical foundation for our future must be respected/maintained in its true form. We must not allow ourselves to “imagine” progress (toward our goals), no matter how secure that makes us feel. An accurate awareness of our plan is critical, always. If it is difficult to think about this, at times, so be it! At least, we are aware of our true location, on our “map” of life’s journey. There is hope. There is always hope.

Long term specific plans…In order that we may facilitate “staying on a path”, that is (morally) righteous, while making progress in our “master plan”, we design more specific long range plans. In this theatre, there are concepts such as… career planning, etc. These, for some, may entail many specific “steps”, leading to an isolated goal. For others, more “generalized” steps provide a stairway to more “flexibility”, in the future. For the very young, the “goal” may not be clear, at all, but we know that preparation for whatever is to come is very important, possibly crucial, so we, at least, look for an appropriate curriculum. Time generally proves that when good thought is given to our future, and the good thought, is followed up with support, discipline, and work… good results are forthcoming.

Short term specific plans…The first three categories, covered, in our “theatre of life” were extremely wide ranging, designed to carry us through the better part of our lives. This category includes all other conscious planning. It is formulated, of course, to support long range plans while facilitating necessary lesser objectives, usually of a far more specific nature. Initially, the approach may seem fairly direct, but, soon, additional programs may be necessary to support those plans. Often, in life, the complexity may include activity, apparently in opposition to the guidelines of our first three basic principals/plans. It must be examined, closely, so that we may see the relevance of the actions. If that does not, quickly, become clear, an investigation is in order. Anything working in opposition to the basic, fundamental aims must be halted. Then, a new assessment must be made.

The Heart of the Problem

This section represents a focused effort to get to the very heart of memory related problems.

Some of the foregoing observations, for each of us, may seem to point to problems in our thinking, not, directly related to memory loss. So be it, but note that our primary aim, here, is to positively influence factors in our thinking (and lives) that may strengthen memory, as a whole, as well as in part. We’ll try to isolate the most needful areas, whether it is in how we make “observations”, how we prepare for “pure presentation”( to our minds), the “presentation, itself”, the “health of our mind” (in general), and our “attitude” (where it concerns the retrieval of stored information). Nearly infinite, varied, situations have influenced the thinking in all of us…but, we’ll attempt to look at very “primary” items, shared by most of us (albeit, to many differing degrees). Modern science is pointing, more and more, to underlying causes of memory loss that look like disease or results of disease (such as physical parts of our brain (and closely related body areas), deteriorating, lying in ruins, or sufficiently weakened as to be ripe for infection, etc.). While we don’t begin to have all the answers, we do know that for any physical organism (as well as physiological or mental areas), health is influenced, enormously, by many factors having to do with nurturing, care, protection, etc. This is our point of attack! Let us try to restore some health to our memory while we look for ways to avoid further damage. Memory will respond, favorably, to any relief it can get (healing can find a place to begin)! (As in the old computer-related saying) “Garbage-in equals garbage-out. “

Storing excess, unimportant data in our memory adds “clutter” that we may, later, try to integrate with important data because of a lack of links (on the part of the “clutter”), and because of “parallels” and “similarities” that are just a “little too much”!... (especially, if our memory is not in top health). If our memory has been used to store false information, you can only imagine what bad results may come! In our willfulness, we may have, actually, tried to force our memory to integrate real memories with false data (perhaps, for the purpose of creating a “realistically” recalled, synthetic, ‘event’?)! Our memory must, somehow, attempt to reconcile such conflicting data. That is something which, ultimately, can not be achieved without some sacrifices.

If healthy factors/forces of reason can, somehow, prevail, perhaps some of this “unfinished” business can be filed, separately. If this is prevented, unhealthy influences may obstruct, destroy, obscure or warp data. A destructive scenario would, probably, include “breakdown of connections linking known, valid data with known, invalid data. Boundaries for “purge or destruction” discrimination will, probably, be too vague to avoid damage to good connections. Weak spots are formed…when brain cells are damaged, additional, unhealthy factors may intrude.

Well…we all know that from time to time, we may have committed similar acts against our memory resources. If, at the time, we believed there was no better alternative to this, we, probably, tried to put the very thought “out of mind’”…made a hard effort to forget (How healthy is this?). In any event, if such assaults, on our memory, have taken place, many times, in the past, just imagine the damage done! Since we have put much ’recall’, of such ’assaults’, ’out-of-memory’, we, really, have no idea how many times it occurred! If we are, presently, able to let all of this ‘soak-in’, without becoming ‘overwhelmed’, the good news is: ‘we’re still here! Therefore, there is, still, hope!

Now, consider, (apart from the pure ‘physiological damage’ to our memory), that most conflicting data is still active, and always attempting to, somehow, reconcile itself with known, true, fact. This is, of course, very ‘unsettling’, and, likely, to be a substantial contributor to anxiety!

Where do we begin? It is usually, most helpful, overall, to make the first step by cutting down on further, damaging activity. ‘Abstinence’ is the ultimate goal, here, but starting a new program, aimed at ‘better diligence’, through thoughtfulness/clear thinking will accomplish much. With every ‘degree’ of ‘mental’ health improvement, comes increased availability of a clear mind.

Short term memory loss?

Perhaps, the mind has been, merely, categorizing input data as ‘low priority’, in accordance with ‘programming’ choices made in the past (thereby, ‘slowing’, filtering, or interfering with ‘quick recall’). Could this be a product of our own choice to limit mental activity? Perhaps the decision came from (some level of) conscious conclusion that ‘memory banks’ might be better off, if not inundated with unimportant data.If the question of ‘overloading memory’ was, ever, given a second thought, one may have suspected that excess input might result in limited space for more important agenda. It might ‘pollute’ related items (i.e. crossover effect, etc.), slow or impede recall, or do even worse (prelude to ‘crashing’ the system). See: Programming choices made in the past

How could our thinking have come to that? Earlier, in life, we probably arrived at a time (in our thinking) when these questions were becoming a (minor) matter of concern. When an individual has realized the accomplishment of considerable advancements in his knowledge and thinking, it becomes quite clear that there is, yet, so much more, to be learned (the old catch: ‘the more you know…the more you know you don’t know’). This kind of awareness might add great pressure to our “campaign” to prepare for much more “incoming”! See: From where to where…

No matter what the total, cumulative, effect from repeated realizations of this may be, the net result is that they are ongoing, and shall continue, in the future. These, “seeds of thought”, “conceived” to enable us to deal more effectively with future challenges, have been sown! See: No matter what approaches… Now, for each of us, there are many, many important “elements” that, from time to time, come in to our thinking, and tend to cause varying degrees of a “sense of urgency” to do something about all of this. In as much as, these “elements” contribute positively, to our mental well being, they serve us, well; however, when they are, merely, a function of “arbitrary programming”, (that we have allowed into our thinking), then they do not. (One example of such elements): In our society, a concept that strongly, suggests “all knowledge is worthwhile” seems to enjoy much support, particularly, in the more intellectual circles. Incubating this concept, many come to feel that knowledge (for knowledge’s sake, alone) is a worthwhile goal. This logic is, of course, flawed, in that there is much knowledge, available, that is quite useless to any given individual (and, in fact, much that is useless to most of us). Beyond that, some knowledge is dangerous..and worse! See: Now, no matter what ’systems’… (the more knowledge we have, the more “intelligent” we are?)

Although we are quite aware such “surplus” data, is just that, we do give some credence (within our mind’s “files”) to the “fact” that there may, in all probability, be some use (in the future, somewhere) for that data (for it to have come to our attention, at all)! Not being very encouraged to delete such material, we must find a way to, appropriately, file it. Since we cannot file such things, in categories dedicated to “items of known relevance to other items”, they must either be (at best) “keyed” to similar items (and this would be so very ambiguous/all-encompassing as to be untenable), or given a place in some “box”, way back, in the spare space of our “mental warehouse”. There, the data would be managed, less, by “mental file clerks”, and, more, by our “mental warehouse management team”( whose priorities/mandate may lean, more, towards the creation of space, as time goes by). See: But is there not some space... Worse, all this inner turmoil may activate some “inner, executive decision” to do a major overhaul, of huge proportions, wasting much energy, in the process. See: Don’t we have some kind of...

Few of us are troubled by these thoughts, until later, in life, due, mostly, to our high regard for our ability to manage, categorize, and re-organize all such information. We are certain, we can handle it! But, as life goes on, and more and more ‘knowledge’ is allowed to pour in, this “self-confidence” weakens. We must take some action! One option, available to us, might be to be more selective, in our “choices of learning experience”. See: Beginning, with early childhood...

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