Power Up Contest: WK4 – Where are those keys?

Oh yes! I am sure that you can all relate to forgetting.

I woke up during the night and thought of a topic I wanted to write about today. Then, when I woke up in the early hours of the morning, I just could not remember what it was. All that I knew was that it was good. Okay, you might want to tell me that if it was so good, I would have remembered.

My brain is pretty awesome, and so is yours, but often they do fail us. We all forget. Does it matter? I’ve been in a few tricky situations where I could not remember the name of the person or things that should be familiar to me.

The reason why we do not remember something is because we only remember the important parts, which we then store in our long-term memory. If we watch a movie, there are a lot of happenings that all get stored in our brains as one memory. Then one day, when we see or hear something, it triggers part of our memory, and we will remember the movie.

Now let’s get back to that person whose name you cannot remember. It can mean that the person’s face already has a new meaning to you and is interfering with your old memory, or it can also mean that your memory has faded over time. If you do not often think or see something, you will forget it. Not to mention the fact that if you do not pay attention in the first place, you are for sure not going to remember.

Does this mean that I might one day wake up and remember what I wanted to write about? Who knows?

What I can tell you is that forgetting is not always bad. Take me as an example. Here I am. I forgot what I wanted to write about, and now I get to share my thoughts on memory. I think that is pretty awesome.

Just imagine how overloaded our brains would have been if we had to remember the name of every single person we have met, all the conversations we’ve had over the years, not to mention all the words we’ve read on Steemit.

After this morning, I’ve decided that I am going to label my forgetfulness as “making space.” I am going to treat it the same as deleting photos from my photo albums if my phone is running out of storage space.

I cannot help but sit here with a smile. I was just reminded that what happens around us is taken up in our “short-term” memory, which only lasts 18 or 20 seconds if I can remember correctly. Don’t laugh!

Well, if I had to remember that guy in the boardroom’s name, the one with the double-breasted jacket that my dad so warned me about, I would have had to repeat or write his name out a couple of times. He did not consider me important when I gave my presentation, so, nope, it is something I would not have done. I would not have moved his name from my short-term memory to my long-term memory.
What I have made a high priority of is the happening and my dad’s words, making sure I am not going to forget it.

If you don’t access your memory over a long period of time, you are going to find it harder to retrieve it. Can that be why we forget where we’ve put the keys? That all-too-familiar scenario: you're rushing out the door, already running late, and suddenly you have no idea where you left your keys.
Maybe it is that our brains are making space for a new memory, and keys are not important. I don’t think my husband is going to fall for this one.

I could always tell him that my brain did register where I'd put the keys, but they got lost in the shuffle between my daily tasks, my concerns, and those four cups of coffee I made him.

I have learned that rather than beating myself up, I have to approach these moments of failed memory with patience. With a few deep breaths and a “recalling” of my steps, the missing keys will likely turn up, and I will be on my way, marveling once again at the incredible, if imperfect, power of the human mind.

Oh shucks! I almost forgot what this post is all about... powering up.

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I invite @aviral123 @missyleo @mesola @richy20 @humaidi to participate in this contest

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