Forgot to take out the trash, again? Remember, the Meditation Way

Humans are a forgetful bunch. We forget everything from calling our loved ones to picking up that crucial item on our way home from work. If I were to make an educated guess, I’d have to say that the we are becoming more forgetful as a society with each passing year. I attribute this to the general increase in our pace of life. There seems to be so much more to worry about these days. At any particular moment, we typically have a jumble of to do items floating around in our heads. And, as we squeeze more tasks into this convoluted mess, a few are bound to slip out. Have you experienced the frustration of having one task that you’ve been telling yourself to do over and over again, and it seems that every time you’re a situation where you could accomplish the task, you completely forget about it. You only remember that you forgot to do it after the fact, maybe when you’re on your way to work. There are several reasons for this that go beyond simple forgetfulness, but we’re just going to tackle how to remember to do the things you want to do.

As I mentioned, part of the reason we forget things is because we have way too much going on in our minds. In this day and age, it is all the more important to begin or continue a regular meditation practice. Meditation helps to bring your mind into a state of balance, where it is focused and can more easily handle the challenges of your day. By meditating regularly, your memory is sure to improve over time. One meditation you can use to help you sort out all of the clutter in your mind is one I call, “The Mental Organizer.” Try this out when you feel you’re juggling too many things.

-- The Mental Organizer --

Find a comfortable spot to sit or lie down. Close your eyes and relax. In a moment, I’m going to ask you to take a deep breath through your nose, making sure your stomach rises as you inhale. I’ll then ask you to hold your breath for two seconds and then to breathe out through your mouth. Go ahead and take that deep breath now. Hold for two seconds and breathe out through your mouth. Repeat this three times now. Continue to breathe normally as you allow your body and mind to relax.

Your brain has the amazing ability to sort and categorize all of your tasks and thoughts. It is faster than any computer out there and can be used to help you get organized. I’d like you to imagine that all of your tasks and to do items and stray thoughts are traveling slowly from the right side of your brain to the left side. Imagine that as your scattered thoughts go from the right side to the left side, they are processed in the center by your brain. Imagine that your brain sorts all of the information at the speed of light and as soon as the information passes through the center of the brain, it is neatly packaged, organized, and categorized. It then continues to the left side where it is stored efficiently, ready to be retrieved whenever you need it. Imagine that all of your thoughts are coming in from the right side of your brain and being processed in the center on their way to the left side. Continue to imagine this until all of your tasks are processed and stored.

Go ahead and end this meditation by thanking your brain for its wonderful abilities. Take a deep breath and open your eyes.

How was this? For some, this may initially seem to have no effect, but give it time. With practice, this will help you keep your thoughts organized, and help you remember the things you need to get done.

One other great “trick” for remembering things comes to us from the realms of hypnosis. In hypnosis, you use “triggers” to connect seemingly unconnected items together. For example, you might create a trigger where every time you hear the tick-tock of a clock, you automatically begin to feel relaxed. Triggers can also be used quite effectively for helping you remember things you need to do. Let’s say you always forget to turn off the heater before leaving the house in the morning. You can create a trigger where, every time you touch the doorknob to leave your house, you will instantly be reminded of the heater. This skill can come in very handy as you go about your day. Another example might be that you’re on your way home from work and remember that you need to call a co-worker as soon as you get home. You might then create a trigger where as soon as you see the phone in the kitchen, you’ll remember to call your co-worker. This really works!

There are two ways of doing this, for our purposes. One is through meditation. This method is not as practical for quick tasks or for situations where meditation is not exactly possible. Nonetheless, this is a great way to get started with using triggers. Once you become proficient at this method, you can try the second approach.

-- Remembering with Triggers --

Find a comfortable spot to sit or lie down. Close your eyes and relax. In a moment, I’m going to ask you to take a deep breath through your nose, making sure your stomach rises as you inhale. I’ll then ask you to hold your breath for two seconds and then to breathe out through your mouth. Go ahead and take that deep breath now. Hold for two seconds and breathe out through your mouth. Repeat this three times now. Continue to breathe normally as you allow your body and mind to relax.

I’d like you to focus on one task that you’d like to remember to do. Think about the task in detail. Now take a moment to think about something you can use to trigger the memory of doing this task. It should be something you might associate with this task. Try to choose an object that you will come in contact with at some point during your day, at the time that you’ll be able to accomplish the task. Once you have this object in your mind, tell yourself that the next time you see this object, you will instantly remember the task. Repeat this to yourself five times and truly believe that this will happen.

You may now repeat this meditation with another task, or end for today by taking a deep breath and opening your eyes.

The other method for using triggers, is to simply do what you did in the meditation above, without the meditation. By this I mean, you can create a trigger, by simply telling yourself to create one. It helps to be in a relaxed state, but it is not a requirement. With a lot of practice, you’ll be able to take a moment to say something like, “The next time I pass by the kitchen trashcan, I will remember to take out the trash.” By saying this to yourself several times, you’ll be successfully creating the trigger. This method may not work for you at first, but as you become more experienced, this should prove to be quite useful.

So, the next time you see this article, you’ll remember to tell all of your friends about it.