Photographs can help influence vivid memories as a "trigger."
Forgetting events that have happened or information you have absorbed is a natural part of human memory. While this may be frustrating, there are ways to influence memory so you will have a more clear understanding of what happened at different points in your life. Traumatic events, for example, may lead to people "blocking out" memories entirely.
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is a technique practiced by some psychologists and mental health professionals that helps people remember things they were previously unable to recall. This technique works well for people who have suffered a traumatic event. When the brain is more relaxed, as it is during hypnosis, you are able to recall things that you may have previously "blocked out."
People who believe in reincarnation also may try hypnosis to remember specific events from past lives.
Emotion
Most people remember events that are tied to a strong emotion. For example, most people will always remember where they were when they heard catastrophic news or during a big world event. Recalling how you felt during that time will help induce vivid memories, although the memories are likely very vivid already whether you would like them to be or not. These memories often are on the forefront of our minds and are very simple to recall.
Using a Trigger
Memory is strongly tied to the body's senses. This means that visual, auditory or taste clues can bring back a memory in an especially vivid fashion. Listening to a song that was playing during a certain event may help induce the memory of that time. Likewise, eating a food that you ate during an event or smelling a certain scent, such as a specific perfume, may bring back memories of a person or time.
Keeping Stress Down
When creating new memories that you'll want to recall later, it is very important that you keep the level of stress down in your life. Those with depression and a great amount of stress often have a more difficult time remembering things than their more relaxed counterparts.
Likewise, it is important to "tie" something to a memory. If you must memorize names, look for visual clues that will help trigger a vivid memory of the person's name when you need to recall it.
Tags: bring back, events that, have more, help induce, more relaxed, people remember, that have