Good morning everyone. While you enjoy my newest song, I have another book I want to share with you; this time purely for fun. The book is titled ‘Moonwalking with Einstein (The Art and Science of Remembering Everything)’ by Joshua Foer, and it’s an intriguing exploration into how our memory works, and how it can be life hacked.

For those who haven’t encountered the idea, I first discovered the term ‘Mind Palace’ in the new Sherlock series (with Benedict Cumberbatch). At first I assumed it was a clever way to further the story along; showing us Sherlock’s miraculous mental powers, and his ability to explore and revisit locations from his memories. But after reading this book, I’m happy to say the Mind Palace is a real thing; and it really works. :D

So if you ever find yourself needing to remember a long list of items , but you lack paper and pencil (or the ability to take notes on your smart phone, because you’re trapped in the distant past without your charging cables)… here’s how you do it…

First, you need a location that is very familiar to you. In my case, I chose my house and garage.

Second, imagine a path traversed through that location. I chose to imagine the moment I pull into the garage after a day at work; and the walk I would take leading into the house and up to our master bedroom.

Third, imagine those items in your path, discovered along your intended route (and here’s the fun part… the sillier you can make the object, the easier it is to remember. An apple is just an apple, but an apple with a baby bonnet on it really stands out in your memory).

So as an example, I want to remember a grocery list that includes apples, milk, a bag of flour, gum, a protein shake, etc. In my imagination, I step out of my car to discover a basket full of apples wearing baby bonnets on the table by the garage door. I then proceed through the garage door to discover a cow holding a container of milk, smiling at me. Then I make my way to the back door of the house, and am hit with an exploding cloud of flour as I open the door. Now covered in flour, I make my way into the kitchen and discover lawn gnomes sitting at the table, chewing gum and blowing bubbles. Walking past them, I find a muscular squirrel pumping iron with one hand, drinking a protein drink with the other. And it goes on and on from there.

Just to give you an idea how effective this technique is, Cheer and I were easily able to recall about 25 things… in the correct order (and we’re talking concepts as well as objects) while experimenting with this little memory game. That is mind blowing to consider; and it’s amazingly easy once you get the routine down.

So there you go; a new mental acuity game you can play with friends and family. And it’s just one of several concepts shared in this book (which also includes techniques for memorizing sequences of numbers, or a poem, or the stacking order of a deck of cards, etc.). I had a lot of fun experimenting with these tricks and techniques, and I still practice some of them from time to time. I hope you find the concept intriguing as well. And I hope you enjoyed my latest musical offering ‘The Secret World Inside My Blanket Fort’ while you expanded your brain’s capabilities. :)