Recently, I had a conversation with April Crystal, one of the Cognitive Therapists at CognitiveFX. During this conversation, April shared many helpful tips on how to use life situations as opportunities for improving our cognitive skills. Here are a few of the ideas and principles she shared:
- ATTENTION is often the first step in MEMORY
- Take a mental picture of where you parked your car and try to remember from that (if you want to use your phone to take an actual picture as backup, that’s fine too, but really just use it as a backup)
- Take a look at a map before a trip and try to remember the landmarks/directions, using GPS as a backup
- Organize your grocery list by sections in the store and then try remembering your list (using your physical list as a backup)
- When you put your phone down, use multiple senses to pay attention in that moment: make a mental picture of it and also say out loud where you are putting it. (When Bethany was telling her parents about this idea, her dad mimed outputting a phone down and jokingly said, “I am putting my phone in the fridge” … it was funny, but really, if you said out loud what you were doing, you’d be less likely to put it there 😉
If you want to hear more tips and the whole conversation with April, you can find it here:
YouTube: https://youtu.be/54N2ZjuyHO8?si=_TUAKAQx6wxH4WBN
Have a fantastic day!
Cheers,
Bethany