Now, where did I put my pen this time?

When our kids were young, my husband and I would play Memory with them and they would beat us, hands down, each time. Memory is that card game where you put a deck of playing cards all face down and you take turns choosing, two at a time, until you have uncovered all the pairs.

A friend of mine told me that the kids could play it better because they had less stored in their memories and it was easier for them to store that information. I don’t know how true that is, but hey, it worked for me. :-)

Forgetting things is normal; we’ve all forgotten where we’ve put something or an activity we were supposed to do. Again, when my kids were young, I could remember just about anything. I had no need for a family calendar because I kept track of appointments for our whole family all in my head. Rarely was anything forgotten. And then, the shock came. I forgot an appointment. And then another. Time to use those calendars I kept buying. I find I can remember most of the appointments still, but every once in a while, I do still double book myself or forget something altogether.

Some people begin to fear Alzheimer’s disease is setting in if they start forgetting things. But, our brain, like the rest of our body, is aging, so it’s normal that it might not be quite as fertile as it once was. Forgetfulness is not necessarily a sign of Alzheimer’s.

Unless your memory lapses are starting to affect how you do things (not counting using a calendar and making lists!), you probably shouldn’t have to worry about memory loss and something more serious.

Studies have shown that that people who exercise their brain by reading a lot and doing mental puzzles do slow down the rate of memory loss. If you add to this staying physically active helps keep your physical body healthier, and staying socially active helps your psychological health, the key looks like it is keeping busy and living your life to its fullest.

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