The advice and informational content does not necessarily represent the views of mother's market and kitchen mother's recommends consulting your health professional for your personal medical condition.

Hello, I'm Kimberly King, and welcome to the mother's market radio show, a show dedicated to the Truth, Beauty and Goodness of the human condition. On today's show, if you've ever had challenges remembering, this is the show for you, we're gonna sharpen your mind and memory skills and give you a few tips on how you can recall just about anything and keep your mind sharp, plus we'll tell you what's new at mother's market and give you a chance to win a 100 gift card.

But first up, it's time to put on our thinking caps and we're extremely pleased to welcome a true pioneer when it comes to alternative thinking in education. Dr. Sherry sweeten is a nationally syndicated columnist, corporate trainer, author and radio host that has combined 15 years of passion into her brain power program that's raised test scores dramatically for thousands of students, and we are so very fortunate to be welcoming her to the mother's market radio show Dr. sweet on. How are you? I'm great, so happy to be here.

And we're so happy to have you here.

Talk about making a difference where it matters, and we can't wait to hear more, but before we get started into today's topic, can you fill our audience in on what your work is and its mission? Well, it is about bringing kids to their true brilliance, helping them understand how brilliant they really are, I think if I would have to put it all in a nutshell, it would be that.

So I got pulled into the corporate memory skills area and where I would train how to remember names, how to remember information, all really fun stuff, but the problem is that adults can't be as creative and rent is imaginative as children, and so it was always very frustrating because as much fun as we had and great ideas, and we'll go to a party and memorize all these names, you know that it wasn't gonna go anywhere because it's tough and it's hard and we're not creative as we get older, and so basically to answer the question, I realized that if I could bring this to schools where the kids are still really very fresh and creative and imaginative, and they could build those memory skills early, early on, then we knew we could raise grades and help kids understand that if I just use a tool, or if I go into my creativity, I can be so powerful academically and it just works. It just really works well. I'm already thinking, This is gonna be such a great interview and good because you're starting at such a young level that we can take it to the next level, so I think we're all gonna get something out of this, So... Excellent, so today we're talking about brain power and how, of course, we can all stay sharp as we age, and hardly anyone who gets older doesn't complain about being forgetful... I know I'm right there with you.

So Dr. sari, is there anything we can do about that?

There's so much that we can do and in conversations with special... At these corporate seminars that while I forget things and I just... I'm just getting older and that's how it is, and all my friends and they forget things too, and so we've sort of accepted that we just forget things, and especially as we get older now that's our excuse, but there's so much that we can do for that from nutrition to just actually practicing. They say, if you use it, if you don't use it, you're gonna lose it, but if you use it, what does that mean? And so it's what 4 billion dollar industry right now, or people are putting out CDs and games to help keep your mind fresh and staff Alzheimer's, whatever.

But the difficult thing with that is if you're gonna sit in front of a game for 15 minutes a day, it's not really gonna help you making memory skills a Way of Life, however, is something that's gonna continually expand your brain power in your brain capacity, and so when I work with adults and especially aging adults, I like to say, Okay, you go to the grocery store frequently, don't bring the list. Oh gosh, I have to bring a list... I would forget what we get at the grocery store, but if you're trained daily to use your memory use tricks, I'm gonna go to the grocery store and I need to get green beans and onions and Oreos, and I create an acronym in my mind that... And I do that a few times, maybe three times, it just becomes a natural way of, Wow, I realize that if I can remember the first letter to everything I need to get... It just comes back to me. How powerful is my brain? It's just amazing.

But using that every time I meet somebody who would... I forget their name. I can use a little trick and remember your name right away. Why would I not do that? It's so powerful for relationships and for meeting new friends and business, and so being in that habits every single day, it's not as burdensome as it would seem, and it truly, truly begins to expand your memory capacity.

Another thing is awareness and observation that I keep bringing up names because that's the one thing that adults so often, so I cannot remember names, and I had people introduce themselves to me and say, I'm not gonna remember your name, I'm really sorry. Recite out of the shoot. You know? Great to meet you. I'm probably not gonna remember name, I was sad how we close those doors and I shake them and I grab... Let me say now you remember my name and here's how... No, I usually don't do that, but I like want to that... But that's true. We all do that. It seems absolutely, and you never wanna close the doors to your own memory and your own knowledge and say, I can't... I won't remember, but being in that habit constantly every single day for so many things, and you realize that your mind just expands and think... For example, I was doing a corporate memory workshop, and one of the students came in on breakaways, an eight-hour class, believe it or not, which you know sounds really torturous, but after the lunch break... One of the students came up to me and said, You know, I've done seminars before, but we came into the room talking to each other, and I think the reason is because we knew each other because we had to memorize each other's names, 'cause that was one of the exercises. And so when you know somebody's name, you know them, and that's the strange like psychology of it is if I see walking on the street and I know that I mention somewhere, I walk down the street, I'm not gonna probably make contact or maybe smile and wave and it's gonna be embarrassing that I don't even know who you are, but if I memorize your name, I know you. And so that's really powerful.

If a relationship... You wouldn't think that that would be such a big deal. But you know what I've read somewhere before that just being called by your name and just buy straight, really not necessarily just as you say a stranger, but when somebody calls you by name, that just automatically gives that connection, so just it's just a compliment to a true and even in a relationship and somebody that you're married to, you know, we have a assumes...

I don't remember, I know you be sad if your husband or wife doesn't know you at the Trident, are those... What are those skills? I've also read that when you first meet somebody within that first meeting that you have to say their name, what, three or four times or something in order to get that memory to go, is that sort of one of the things that you use in your reports and the fun thing is, there are a number of techniques, and I write about 10 in my book, but I think the most important, honestly, is hearing it the first time. That the people who say, You know, I'm not gonna remember your name. I'm so bad at names. They've trained themselves not to hear the name, and so it's hi, Hey, nice to meet you at an even here, 'cause I'm not paying attention 'cause I'm not gonna... I'm not gonna remember it anyway, but actually hearing... And I believe this isn't a study statistic, but I believe it's 50% of the battle that I'm gonna pay attention to the name to begin with, and being nervous, it's in the way of that, or thinking about what I'm gonna say gets in the way of that or, how do I look or... And so hearing it is the most important first AD, but certainly repeating everybody, as you mentioned, everybody loves to hear their own name.

Another technique is visualization. So if you meet somebody and their name is a noun, then you have to picture that now, and if their name is Rose, you must picture a big rose coming out of their head, their head as a rose, and God forbid they should have red hair. It's perfect. And they are in the red for... Yes, exactly. And so many, many now names or if their adjective names, Sandy, somebody, Sandy, you've gotta picture them rolling around on the beach or sand all over them, the funny or the crazier, they're more imaginative, or the Hattie color may be, but if it is, it's gonna stick in your mind more so now names, verb names, adjective names.

Also, another technique is taking the first letter of their name, and their brain is amazing in this way that give it a tip off, just a little tip off, just a little... Anything in the brain goes, Oh, I got it, I got it. Like, I don't remember that name, that tune from your favorite shows.

Yeah, yeah.

How is it that they could play two notes on a piano and somebody has a whole song and it's... We were watching... Gosh, that's aging me.

I can't be that a lot in... My mom was on that show, which is why she did not, and she was a great contestant, so that's another story, but it...

Tina's true that that's really... If you think about it, if you think about it, our brain's so amazing, we see somebody through her yards away and we're gonna throw football and our brain knows exactly where for my case, five feet away that right.

My brain knows exactly how much pressure to put on this football, it's just to where it's going... What exactly the capacity is crazy, but that tip of power that... That's why I renamed acronyms top words tipper, because they are tip off power.

Anyway, so back to the memory of names, that if you have the first letter of a name and you can place it on their face amount, I meet a Barbara and she's guy classes on, and I can see the B in her glasses. Or I see Tom and Tom's got these really harsh eyebrows like, I make it a tea and I can see the time, but if I will take a moment to see that and observe that, that it's gonna stay in my mind. So the next time I see him on the street, I'll go, Oh, oh, oh yeah, Tim.

No breathe brain really works that way. That was pretty exciting.

So I've got a what, seven more that that, but some things I've made up, some things are things you've heard about before, you've heard about visualization and association, one other of my favorites is, if you know somebody who's got the same name of the person that you're meeting, and whenever I work with schools to say, Well, how many people do you think You know...

I might know 100. really?

What about all the celebrities, what about all the teachers you've ever had in your life, what about your parents and your parents friends and everybody that you've ever... Sports figures him over, chances are, when you meet somebody, you know somebody in your world that has that same name or close to it... I made a Carly, there is a Carly Simon out there, but I wouldn't have thought that I know a Carly.

And so that's all very, very fascinating that that's a way that your mind goes, well, well, I know more, and I like to call that anchor knowledge that it's things that we already know, that we can attach information too, and those are my favorites in names, but there's so many more. And we could talk for the next six hours, if you like it.

I love that this is great because that is the very first thing when people say, Oh, I just can't remember names, and that's usually the first thing to... Okay, well, we can talk about names and love, in fact, we're gonna have to get back to this, so... Interesting. So very interesting information, Dr. share right now, we're gonna have to take a quick break. But more of the mother's market radio show in just a minute. So stay with us, we'll be right back.

Welcome back to the mother's market radio show, and we wanna take the time to remind you that if you missed any portion of today's show, you can find us on iTunes by searching mother's market, or you can download the podcast from our website, mothers market dot com, click on the link for radio and listen to our past shows, plus you can always download our Healthy Recipes and money savings coupons, all available at mother's market dot com. And now back to our interview with Dr. Sherry sweetener, we're discussing brain power and how to stay sharp, you do workshops and have products sold at mothers, so... So very interesting, and I guess my next question is, should we throw away our notes in our calendars?

Oh, absolutely not. I would die without my iPad Calendar in my notes, and I know that it sounds like I'm throwing myself under the bus, I don't use my own tools, but it's just not true, I think there are different parts of your memory and... Sure, getting birth dates in your mind, that's great, and connecting to who is in March, who are our March birthdays, and get a little visual of that, that's super. But put it on your calendar 'cause you're gonna forget because we're busy and we have day-to-day stuff, and so absolutely not, there's a place for calendars and reminders and alarm clogs, and I text myself as sad as that is, but having notes is really okay, but I think the mindset is all about just focus on exercising your brain, and when you can... When you're going to the grocery store, don't bring the list.

Okay, unless it's so vital that you're shopping for somebody's wedding and it's at the last minute and they've asked you to run out and get the get... Write it down then. But if you're just gonna go to the grocery store, make a point of memorizing things, make a point of exercising in your brain, and what was it that I needed, and the first few times is gonna be a little bit more difficult than it would be if you had a note, you know. But to be able to walk into a store and visualize what you need or using a top word or an acronym is just so powerful for your brain exercise actually, and so... Nope, don't throw away the calendars, don't throw away the notes of... Keep those important... For that important information there available for you, but exercise your brain when you can, because it is sort of an information overload right now that we go through, so I understand about with the calendar, you're right, we can't be expected to memorize everybody's dates at birthday to not but absolutely not, but the exercising, I think is good though, as far as the list at the grocery store, we do have to start to realize, Okay, wait a minute, where do we start in with that exercise... Exactly, we all want to avoid dementia and Alzheimer's, and that's so important today. We're talking about that upfront, but honestly, is there anything that we can do about that there... We don't know a whole lot about the brain, or let's say there's a whole lot... We don't know. We know a lot, but there's a whole lot. We don't know, there's definitely a gene that they've discovered that predisposes us to Alzheimers, it's APO 4, if that matters at all, you... I guess there's testing that can be done about it, but... So yeah, there are people who are more likely. People who are less likely, I guess, whatever that's worth, but what really matters is, what do we do about it? And we can absolutely take care of our brains and stave off this kind of thing, even if we do have susceptibility, but over time or brain shrink, and as we get older and older and we're living longer these days, our brains actually shrink and the gunk sort of builds up and things get tangled up in there, and so our diet has so much to do with how much that happens, how much that gets dunked up to use really profound medical terms, gun and tangles, but it's what happens to our brain, and so making sure that you get your Omega is a lot of people diet, they cut calories and cut fat and... Or can I have any fat in our diet? And that's terrible, you need your omega-3s, you need a good balance of your Megas, but what I like to say, since I'm not a nutritionist and I'm not a neurologist, and I love the information and read about it, is the facts are... Keep a container of raw walnuts in your house at all times and encourage your kids and your family to eat raw... Well, that's why because they have a lot of the brain feeding of Megas and accidents that we need, and so a rule of having berries and just thinking from a very simple point of view rather than going into a real depth of study in ranking the vegetables and which has what? An accident and go for the deep colored berries and the fruits and leave the skin on when you can, if you eat an apple, eat the skin, if you have a cucumber, leave the skin, and really the foods that feed are... That take care of our body in our heart and stay about cancer, same thing is gonna feed your brain, and so it makes it really easy that you go to mother's market and you shop for your elford and you're gonna be taking care of your body overall, but there's a lot we can do about this, obviously, and so we can't give up on ourselves, exercise, proper nutrition, you're gonna hear that over and over for taking care of an... Absolutely. Any aspect of your life. But using it as well, obviously just making a point to learn things, stay active, stay engaged, anything that uses your brain and pushes your brain is gonna help it grow.

Is your memory perfect, Dr. son.

Oh, my kindness. Absolutely, let's end the show on that now, my brain is nowhere near perfect, in fact, that's where this all began, is Memorizing, remembering things, learning was always a struggle for me, and so I wasn't... I don't have a photographic memory, I'm not the kind of speak to large groups, but I can't remember every single person's name in a group and show off that I think it's an incredible skill when people can memorize a phone book or stand in front of it in their 1000 people and you knew all their names, I can't do that. But because I have such difficulty and because school was a struggle for me, and because I knew what I wanted to do with my life, which is this very early on, I knew that I was gonna have to figure it out pretty soon that... I love the study of learning and memory, but I'm not really... It doesn't come easily to me. So I'm the person that you talk to about when you struggle, what do you do? Because I know what that's like. And so when I meet somebody, I have to focus on their name, I have to take a minute, and a lot of people don't, a lot of people, Oh, came, I know a camp, this is... You're gonna re your hair, or... I'm not that way, I have to make a decision about it, but the truth is, if you make a decision about it, you're gonna remember more effectively... Studying in school, it was very, very difficult for me. I was so very distracted and just phone calls and other things that I wanna think about and do right now, and I'm playing the radio and watching TV, and I'm gonna run outside and play with some friends, so studying, I would stare at a book for a long time, and it would be hours of that, and I would've thought that I studied for four hours, well, I didn't really, but learning how to focus and going, Oh, I need a tool, I actually need to create an acronym, or you use a mind explosion, or I need to do something that actually takes that information and put it into my mind, and what I realized that if I do that, I am 100% more effective, and now what was four hours is now just one hour because I'm actually doing this certain thing, everything changes and so my memory is not perfect naturally, but my tools help me exponentially.

What about exercise is brain exercises, like crossword puzzles and keeping your brain active in that regard, doing those kind of exercises... Absolutely. Anything that keeps your brain active, clearly, if you're struggling to remember something, struggling to find a word, and we know really just naturally when we're exercising our brain, you think about it... Am I struggling? Am I trying to figure this out? I think a good component is that is enjoyment, I think if you have a negativity, again, these are my own theories, but if you are studying with negativity or somebody screaming at you, or...

I think negativity and stress is such a detrimental aspect of life, period, but to your memory and learning... Absolutely, but if you like crossword puzzles, and this is something that's engaging to you and you are working and remembering and studying... That's powerful. The question is, are you like exercise... Are you doing it on a regular basis? Are you... That's why using tools as a way of life as opposed to, I'm gonna watch the CD for 15 minutes a week, or I'm gonna do a crossword puzzle once a week, great stuff, but to actually grow those neural connections and to actually expand your brain power and learn more, the answer is yes, it's just do a lot of those things. Engage yourself often. And that makes it more powerful.

The exercise, how can you... The person who really wants to make a difference with their brain power, use your information most effectively, I think using the tools, and not only using my tools are the tools that I've written about, those are basically the tools that I've seen really work and work effectively in schools and with students. But make up your own... And I think that's really a neat part of... I have in the corporate seminars, I'll have all of the students make up their own memory tool, and the first response is, well, I can't do that. I don't even know what you're talking about. Make up a tool, and the challenges, look at these tools and decide what's most effective for me, and a good example is remembering names, the one that always comes up. There are probably 20 different tools that you could use, and I write about on of the most effective that I have seen work most effectively with people, but now look at those and decide what's best for you, what I really... I like to use my anchor knowledge, if I meet a Kim, I wanna picture, my cousin came and I wanna put you together, and that's the one that I always go to, but maybe there's a different now, the sound of him and the musical tone, and I imagine her connected, I don't know, but you have the way that your brain works, which is different from everybody else's, which is so important to teach students, but I think that's what makes it most effective is first use the tools, but stretch your mind to create your own figure out what works best for you. I might that personalize it a... Right, that's what I meant to say.

You own it, basically on it. That's exactly it it to say It's your own... Well, you have been so fascinating, and I know that people are gonna get so much out of this. Thank you so much for your time, Dr. Shari and Quebec back any time.

We lead to having you on again as a matter of fact, and in the mean time, you can catch more of Dr. Sherry on her website, brain power schools dot com, and learn all about her passion for learning and education, perhaps also you wanna pick up one of our books like the learning tool box, memory skills for everyone, is that right?

You get that at the mother's market or see her in person. We also look forward to having you on our next visit. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Thanks for listening to the mother's market radio show and for shopping at mother's market, the advice and informational content does not necessarily the views of mother's market and kitchen, mother's recommends consulting your health professional for your personal medical condition A