Where does this widespread mania of capturing everything that happens to us in some imperishable medium come from ? Whether in paintings, books or photos, it seems that human beings have the need to record what they do and say . As Umberto Eco taught us, “from the rose, only the naked name remains” and society lives in fear that that name will not prevail in history. This may be an externalization of the storage system that everyone has in their brain, memory .
It could be said of memory that it is a capacity that our mind grants us to recover images, situations, sensations or information that we lived in the past and that we have needed again for some reason. Memory is a survival mechanism that allows us to use our experiences to avoid repeating the same mistakes and to continue progressing. Although it is often talked about the storage of memories, what memory really does is reproduce the electrochemical stimuli that the brain received at the moment it is remembering to produce the same response. Our senses, thoughts and even our dreams are “registered” through neural connections waiting to go into action.
The brain uses different types of memories (short-term, long-term, olfactory, procedural, photographic, declarative) that act simultaneously and are interconnected to achieve better functioning and faster responses. However, this block operation usually causes some memories that do not correspond to enter the one that interests us or that there are information gaps that the brain itself fills in and provides memories that do not represent reality as it was. Problems derived from fatigue, stress or a bad emotional or psychological response can cause certain memories that we still have to be blocked and inaccessible for a while.
Shakespeare said that “memory is the guardian of the brain” and just as it takes care of our mind, we must take care of it . Exercises, brain games, nutrient-rich diets or healthy lifestyles are some of the many aspects that we must watch to keep our memory healthy and in shape. A few tricks that will help us take care of our invisible sentinel .
