Rewire Your Brain: Think Your Way to a Better Life

particularly powerful way to use the link technique is to link a visual 
image with something you want to remember. The visual association 
route has been found to be effective because people tend to remem-
ber unusual visual images quite well. That is why advertisers craft 
ads so that the positively proactive images of their products stick in 
your mind. For example, many companies try to link an attractive 
person with their product. You can use the same brain circuits to 
link what you want to remember with a provocative visual image. 
Let ’ s say that as you are about to lie down to go to sleep, you want to 
remember to call for a service appointment for your car in the morn-
ing because the engine light went on as you were driving home. Tell 
yourself that when you see the light on the coffee maker go on in the 
morning, you will link it with the engine light in your car. 
There are some commonalities and dissimilarities among the four 
mnemonic techniques. When you don ’ t have a lot of time and you need 
to develop a quick way to remember something important, it is wise to 
use a peg. One of the advantages of the peg over the story link is that 
you can pick out individual items from a list. The story - link system, in 
contrast, relies on a sequence. 
Like the loci system, which is dependent on prememorized loca-
tions, the peg system also uses prememorized word or number links. 
With a peg, the information is connected to nouns or verbs (such 
as FEED). 
Whatever mnemonic system you use, make sure that it ’ s fl exible and 
that it meets the demands of what you ’ re trying to remember. Practice 
using mnemonic devices so that you ’ ll be versatile in their use.
Eduardo ’ s Tables 
Eduardo came to see me because he wanted to improve his memory 
performance at work. He was a waiter in a very high - end Nob Hill 
restaurant in San Francisco. He believed that his tips could be as 
high as his colleagues ’ if he could just remember “ a little something 
about each customer ” whom he served. He explained, “ As it is now, I ’ m 
barely getting by remembering what table to bring the dishes to. ”
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After ruling out many contributors to poor memory such as diet, 
substance abuse, and poor sleep habits, we explored what mne-
monic system would be the most appropriate for his use in the 
restaurant. We settled on the loci system because he had a set 
arrangement of tables and chairs on which to build a system. Since 
Eduardo was an avid traveler, we agreed that he could assign a cer-
tain continent to each table. (More than one table could be given 
the same continent.) He not only entertained himself by paying 
attention to who sat in a particular continent but also whether or 
not they ordered dishes that were from that continent. He remem-
bered these congruities or incongruities when he served them their 
respective dishes. By making each evening a fun game of geography, 
Eduardo transformed the loci mnemonic system into a great way 
to increase his tips and enjoy his customers. They, of course, never 
knew of his imaginary travels and associations.
How to Improve Your Memory 
There are many things you can do to improve your memory. No 
one thing alone will give you the memory skills that you want and 
deserve. Thus I offer nine simple ways to improve your memory. 
1. Consume a Balanced Diet 
Just as you wouldn ’ t expect to run your car on an empty gas tank, so,
too, you should not expect to run your brain with no fuel. You want 
your brain to run at its optimal level. 
By eating three balanced meals a day, you give your brain what 
it needs: fuel, the right building blocks to function at its potential. 
It ’ s the most basic foundation you can provide to allow your brain 
to remember. 
A balanced meal includes a complex carbohydrate, a fruit or 
a vegetable, and a protein. By eating three balanced meals a day, 
you ’ re giving your brain the combination of amino acids it needs 
to manufacture a spectrum of neurotransmitters, the basis of your 
brain chemistry. 
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Each neurotransmitter allows you to think and feel in ways that 
make you feel good about your life and make you capable of mem-
ory. The neurotransmitter acetylcholine, for example, is critically 
important for your brain ’ s ability to process memory.
2. Get Enough Sleep 
You need a calm and alert mind to be able to use your memory skills 
to their full potential. The basic way to tune yourself up to be ready to 
remember is to get enough sleep. 
If you don ’ t get enough sleep, you won ’ t be able to maintain 
enough attention to code what you want into your memory. Attention 
is the gateway to memory. If your ability to pay attention is compro-
mised, the gate won ’ t be open. Keep the gate open, relax, and get 
enough sleep.
3. Exercise Your Memory 
Your body is the result of millions of years of evolution. You need 
regular exercise to keep your body running properly. Your distant 
ancestors didn ’ t sit around all day in chairs or on a couch. 
By exercising, you allow your body and your brain to keep all your 
organ systems operating at their optimum. By exercising, you rev 
up your cardiovascular system, your metabolism, and the fl ow of 
nutrients to your brain. Exercise also helps you sleep at night and 
minimizes the stress you build up during the day. Doing all this 
will help you to maintain a clear head and remember what you 
experience.
4. Take Supplements (but Keep It Simple) 
Vitamins, minerals, and herbal supplements help your brain to 
achieve the biochemistry it needs to remember well. 
Supplements, however, should
never
be thought of as an alterna-
tive to a balanced diet. Make sure that you always eat three bal-
anced meals a day. If you take supplements, consider them just that: 
supplements. 
We have become a very pill - oriented society, so don ’ t buy into the 
notion that you should take every supplement that has been reported 
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to boost memory. If you take too many supplements and combine 
them with the medications you take to treat various illnesses, you 
run the risk of creating problems, including memory problems. 
If you take supplements, operate on the maxim that less is more. 
Stick to the basics: 
•
Vitamin C
•
Vitamin E
•
Calcium and magnesium
•
Omega - 3 fatty acid
•
Multivitamin with all the essential Bs
5. Stimulate Your Mind 
If you want to improve your memory, you ’ ll have to exercise your 
mind. A lazy mind produces lazy memory skills. 
Whatever your age, make sure that you ’ re always challenging 
yourself. Not only does your brain respond by stimulating more con-
nections between your neurons (through dendritic branching), you ’ ll 
also keep yourself alert and engaged with the world around you. 
If you watch television excessively, your mind will turn off. (Even 
watching educational programs is still a mentally passive activity.) If 
you spend an inordinate amount of time ruminating about the trivial 
mishaps of the day, you ’ ll not only make yourself and those around 
you miserable, your memory skills will also suffer because you ’ re 
preoccupied with irrelevant sidetracks. 
Think of intellectual exercise as a way to keep your memory skills 
sharp. Engage yourself in the following: 
•
Read nonfi ction books.
•
Take classes.
•
Travel.
•
Engage in stimulating conversation and debate.
6. Develop Your Attention Span 
Attention is critical to your memory. Pay attention in order to remem-
ber. If you don ’ t pay attention, you won ’ t be able to move short - term 
memories into your long - term memory. Whatever you can do to 
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improve your attention, do it. Practice focusing on an activity for 
longer and longer periods. Don ’ t multitask or jump quickly from one 
thing to another. Allow yourself to become immersed in an activity 
you enjoy, and concentrate fully and deeply on it. Structure some 
routine activities so that you have an opportunity to pay attention to 
each step that you take to complete the task. Even if this slows you 
down, consider it an important exercise. Not only will you be work-
ing to increase your attention span, but you will also probably fi nd 
that you do a much more complete and quality job with your tasks.
7. Stay Organized 
By keeping yourself organized, you ’ ll be better able to code into 
memory whatever you hope to remember. Staying organized doesn ’ t 
mean being rigid. It means being able to differentiate your experi-
ences and code them into relevant associations. 
If your life is disorganized, your memory will be, too. By being 
disorganized, you won ’ t know how to retrieve your memories; even 
worse, you won ’ t have any to retrieve. 
Get organized so you can remember to remember.
8. Associate, Pair, and Connect 
Your brain has multiple systems that provide multiple means of 
coding memories. If you use several of these systems to code infor-
mation, that will make the memory richer and more easily remem-
bered. The more ways you can remember something, the better 
chance you ’ ll have of remembering it. 
If, for example, you want to be able to remember a car, you ’ ll be 
far more successful at recalling it later if you take note of its name, 
its shape, and its color as well as its smell, the sound of its engine, 
and how it feels to drive it.
9. Use Mnemonic Devices 
Use the four mnemonic devices described earlier: pegs, loci, 
story links, and link.
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S
onya came to see me because she suffered from lethargy as 
well as periods of anxiety, depression, insomnia, and short - term 
memory problems. After detailing those complaints, she asked that 
I “ fi x ” her brain. 
Hearing that her primary concern was lethargy and the secondary 
concerns of anxiety and depression, I asked her about her diet. 
She said, “ I start my day with a tall skinny latte for that little 
boost. ”
“ And what about breakfast? ” I asked. 
“ Oh no, ” she replied. “ I ’ m trying to lose weight. ”
“ Then what and when do you fi rst eat something? ” I inquired. 
“ An energy bar and another latte will do me until dinner, ” Sonya 
said with a smile. Then she shrugged her shoulders. “ But I can ’ t 
seem to shed the pounds. Maybe it ’ s because I sneak a few candy 
bars. You know, another little boost, ” she added, as if I would under-
stand her special needs. 
Since weight was such a concern to her, I told her that skipping 
breakfast actually made it harder to lose weight, because her body 
5 
Fueling Your Brain
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was being fooled into storing fat cells while it was trying to store 
energy. More important, she was depriving her brain of nutrients that 
are critical for a healthy level of biochemistry for the rest of the day. 
With that information in mind, she asked, “ How ’ bout if I eat 
energy bars for breakfast? ”
“ That ’ s not what I mean by breakfast. ” I noted that simple carbo-
hydrates should be avoided and that sugar was the most destructive 
type. 
“ But what about my energy problem? ” Sonya asked in an exasper-
ated tone. 
“ You ’ re
causing
your energy problem by your diet, ” I informed her. 
“ Once you start eating three or four balanced small meals per day, 
your energy will be on the rise. That ’ s, of course, if you cut out the 
sugar and moderate your caffeine intake. ”
This was not good news to Sonya. Despite everything that 
I explained, it all seemed counterintuitive. “ Why should I cut out 
the things that boost my energy? ” she wanted to know. 
“ Because you 
’ re perpetually crashing from those boosts, 
”
I explained. “ What goes up must come down. But the problem is 
that you go further down from where you started. ”
Like Sonya, you might not know that your diet has a major effect 
on the biochemistry of your brain. A bad diet can have a major 
impact on the brain ’ s ability to function properly, making you less 
apt to think clearly, pay attention, and cultivate neuroplasticity. The 
bottom line is that the food you eat is fuel for your brain that can 
enable you to rewire your brain or hinder you from doing so. 
In recent years, a fi eld of study called nutritional neuroscience 
has emerged that sheds light on how particular types of foods affect 
brain chemistry. Some foods enhance your brain ’ s ability to thrive, 
whereas others bog it down, making it not only diffi cult to rewire 
your brain but adding to the risk factors for dementia. 
To illustrate how your diet affects your brain, I ’ ll start this chapter 
by describing how one simple meal can affect the way you think. 
Then I ’ ll describe how your brain chemistry develops and how you 
can ensure that it has what it needs to keep you from being anxious 
or depressed. Finally, I ’ ll describe how to enhance the structure 
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of your brain so that you can lower your risk for dementia and 
enhance your ability to rewire your brain. 
“ But I don ’ t have an appetite in the morning, ” Sonya protested. 
“ The thought of food makes me sick to my stomach. ”
“ You ’ ve developed a bad habit, and your gastrointestinal tract has 
adjusted, ” I told her. “ Don ’ t worry, it can be retrained. ”
She shook her head. “ How ’ bout we talk about my other prob-
lems, like memory, and give this food thing a rest? ”
“ Since your brain is doing the memory work, you need to give it 
fuel, ” I said. “ I ’ ll give you a great example. One of the neurotransmit-
ters you need to process memory is called acetylcholine. Your body 
needs an amino acid called choline in order to manufacture acetyl-
choline. One source of choline is eggs. How about eating an egg, a 
piece of whole - wheat toast, and a glass of juice for breakfast? Then 
I ’ ll teach you how to deal with stress and give you some memory -
improvement techniques. ”
Sonya still was not convinced. It seemed to me that she was hav-
ing diffi culty accepting the need for change as well as making the 
effort to change. It was so much easier to wake up and go from zero 
to sixty with her boost, only to crash down to less than zero, rather 
than doing anything to change her lifestyle. My job was to help her 
understand that her life could be so much richer and healthier. 
“ Would you like to have more energy and to sustain it throughout 
the day without crashing? ” I asked. 
“ Of course, ” she said immediately. 
“ Great. But to get that energy you ’ ll need to make the following 
changes. ” I suggested that she avoid drinking coffee on an empty 
stomach and instead eat a nutritious breakfast. Lunch, too, had to 
be balanced. I asked her to cut out simple carbohydrates from her 
diet altogether. She was to take a multivitamin, an omega - 3 pill, 
and a vitamin E tablet daily. Throughout the day she was to stay 
hydrated, keeping a bottle of water as her constant companion. 
“ How ’ bout I try one at a time? ” she asked sheepishly. 
“ To make the new diet work, you ’ ll need to do it all together, ”
I said, then I presented her a challenge I thought she would accept. 
“ Want to prove me wrong? ”
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She nodded, grinning widely. 
For the next week she made all the changes that I requested. 
When she came back for the next session, she looked more relaxed 
and focused. “ Okay, I feel a little better, ” she admitted reluctantly. 
“ A little? ” I repeated. 
“ Well, more than a little, ” she said, not pleased to admit it. “ Can 
we get started with my problem now? ”
“ Sure. ”
We started working together on this foundation. Sonya learned 
the FEED technique and various memory - improvement techniques. 
Had she not begun to eat breakfast, our efforts would have been 
built like a house of cards on shifting sand.
Breaking a Fast 
I am constantly astounded by the number of people like Sonya who 
come to see me, wanting help to deal with stress, anxiety, and/or 
depression, and then respond to my questions about diet by saying, 
“ I ’ m just not a breakfast person ” or “ I don ’ t have time for breakfast. ”
Yet they do have time to check their e - mail or make an extra phone 
call in the morning before heading off to work. 
When they fail to “ break a fast ” with a nutritious breakfast, it costs 
their brain dearly. They don ’ t know that if they had eaten breakfast, 
they would be far more able to think clearly, remember important 
information, keep their energy high, and maintain balanced moods. 
In some ways, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It 
is the meal that ends the longest amount of time without eating —
hence the term