Our memories are responsible for a huge part of ourselves. They serve as the map that reflects the geography and terrain of the things that we’ve been through. They remind us of the people whom we had - and still have -deep connections with. In a sense, memories have a lot to do with how we carry our own humanity. So, at its most extreme, losing memories can very much be the same as losing oneself.

Of course, that is not the kind of memory loss that we have to deal with every day. It is worth noting, however, that forgetfulness is a spectrum. Most of us have probably had the unfortunate experience of forgetting important details at the most inconvenient of times. Oftentimes, all it would cause is frustration, but it can lead to further despair when such forgetting costs us something of high value.

The thing is, everything we learn can leave our minds as quickly as they come, if we don’t engage our brains on a regular basis. Just as muscles lose strength and definition when they are not always used, our brains will lose its sharpness when we don’t bother to train it. We simply can’t expect ourselves to hold on to information if we let our memory’s grip become weak.

This is what this book aims to change. We may have faulty memories at times, but it doesn’t have to stay that way. We don’t have to settle for being the forgetful one. We don’t have to blame age for not being able to remember as well as we used to. We don’t even have to accept that our memory’s capability today is already at its limit.

By understanding how memory works, simple tweaks in our habits can be enough to see a significant change in the way our mind remembers things - even if it’s the most trivial of details.