Memory and the Happiness Factor - today I discuss a major breakthrough in developing happiness in life!!!

I had recently published a video of memory enhancement techniques for adults and senior citizens. This was a direct result of my work with learning challenged students as well as students with ADHD - attention deficit disorder-. teaching memory techniques together with other learning strategies , test taking skills and integrating this with multi modality biofeedback , I became well versed in memory techniques and how they could be utilized in ADHD and students. Then when I returned to the USA from Israel I began working in a neuro diagnostic lab working with patients who had brain injuries, disease, and dementia. I was able to observe these people up close. This led to an invitation to teach memory techniques to patients with chemo brain and cancer. I learned about their memory needs and adapted a program for them. This then led to the next stop, offering memory enhancement workshops for senior citizens. What I discovered was that the memory needs of students , people with ADHD , people with chemo brain, and senior citizens, was different. Yes, the various memory techniques I use are the same ones used for all groups, however , the memory needs of the different groups are different. For instance , while a student might want to remember important historical dates , Kreb's cycle, the cranial nerves etc. a cancer patient might want to remember a simple recipe because their memory is so shot. A senior citizen, it happens has a lifestyle change and now will meet many new people at nursing homes and senior centers. A way to remember names is what is most important to them. .Thus, I came about to compile the memory techniques an adult and senior citizen might need and published a video " Day to Day Memory Enhancement Techniques for Adults and Senior Citizens.







To obtain video press on photo 



Now this is where my discovery about happiness comes in. AND this is fresh and new , even to me.

As a biofeedback educator , I would use relaxation techniques as well a guided imagery to help people with anxiety feel better as well as reducing psycho physiological stress. However , this might make you feel better and allow happiness to happen, but this in itself is not happiness. It is peace, health, and tranquility.

So,  as a result of the memory enhancement techniques, I would research older people who came for an EEG exam ( electroencephalograph)  , I would ask every patient over the age of 70 " what was their secret to an older life" Well it turned out that it was not what they ate , if they smoked, or what job they had. y cases the person did not know and even attributed it to good genes. yet , just by talking to the patient I could see, even in a health condition, that they were happy. I asked them if they were happy, and all the older people said yes. They did things that made them happy, they also looked to the future, and they kept active if this was through family or profession, So I wanted to remember what things in my life made me happy. but first of all, what did I even remember. Well, it turned out not much relatively speaking. Rather , until a certain age in my life , most the things I remembered were negative things that far out weighed what happy things I remembered . Now I had reasons to be sad, but I had many many reason to be happy. Yet, the sad things far outweighed the good things that I remembered . I had to make a special effort to remember those. Then I remember that in the book on natural techniques for ADHD I wrote there was a page and concept
"My Diary of Memories".

Press photo to obtain book. 

Well , it turns out that as a child - no one told me to remember the good times because I might need to remember them one day to make me happy. My happiness factor. And in this lies a secret to happiness in life. You must "remember to remember" . To be happy , you need a diary of happy memories, but you also have to have been told to make this diary . This is not the same as a photo album. This is much much more. This is an emotional safe, an emotive trigger, a diary of events and cues, a Happiness Factor. 

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