Associating Game

I’ve been interested in memory techniques since I was in 8th grade, and I regularly use them in everyday life in order to remember just about anything. I’m a big fan of teaching them to others, and have been developing a talk that I plan on taking around to local schools. Most memory techniques focus on association, since that is that way our brain works in order to remember something. Recently I came up with a small association game that I’ve been trying out. It goes like this: Pick an object, either something you’re looking at, or something you’re thinking about. Then ask yourself: What do I have associated with this? Sometimes the associated object will come to mind immediately, but sometimes the answer will be nothing. If the answer is nothing, the trick is to just wait for a second, and let your mind mull over the object until something comes to mind. So far, I’ve yet to find something that doesn’t trigger another memory. And sometimes it seems completely random that one thing reminds me of the next. Its a lot like tracing your thought pattern after you’ve been daydreaming for a while. I’m not sure what the benefit of this particular exercise is,… but it seems like you might get to know yourself better… and possibly come up with explanations of why you have certain feelings towards the original object. The cool part, is that everything is associated to something else in your mind… its just a matter of letting it come forth. Maybe its a silly, trivial game, but if nothing else, your concentration and focus improves, and you might learn something about yourself… possibly the most important topic of all.