I was working with a client recently as part of a long term project that has been going on for a couple of months now when a rather distraught woman cornered me and said "Michael you have absolutely got to help me.  I think I have lost my marbles - my memory is going - help me!"

Now she wasn't on her own because she was with a colleague who seemed to be giving this poor lady moral support - she was literally holding her up by her arm.  I had spoken to this lady on a number of occasions during this project and had until now, no idea that there was anything "wrong" with her.

I asked her what the problem was and so she proceeded to tell me.

"I can't remember anything any more.  I keep losing my handbag, keys and I have even forgot where I parked the car once.  I walk into a room and can't remember why I have gone in there.  I feel terrible because I never used to be like this…what can I do"

 Now this is not the first time that I have heard almost exactly the same symptoms from literally hundreds of people and not only that but often told to me with the same levels of distress.  I wouldn't say all these people are hypochondriacs because they have a genuine concern for their mental agility but what is going through the back of their mind is that thought "I hope I haven't got Alzheimers".  And I can almost see them pleading with me to tell them that they haven't.

Sadly I don't have a magic pill or cure all to wave at that condition but what I can do is offer a degree of reassurance that often the cause of apparent memory loss has nothing to do with being forgetful or just forgetfulness in general.  It is all about concentration.

You probably know that we have a subconscious and a conscious mind, one infinitely more powerful than the other.  Our conscious mind has limited capacity and is just capable enough for us to apply ourselves to what we are focussing on in the moment.  Our subconsious mind is incredibly powerful in that it takes care of everything that we don't have the conscious ability to deal with.  It is this part of the mind that allows us to do stuff on "automatic" - like drive a regular journey in the car and not remember one inch of the route that we took.

Often what happens when people think that they have a memory problem is that they do something when they are in the "automatic" mode - i.e. the subconscious is in charge - for example putting the front door keys down after getting home from work.  The conscious mind is never involved in the process and so when this person comes to find the keys again, they have no conscious recall of where they are.  Naturally most people claim to have "forgotten" where the keys are and will swiftly blame the poor memory.

With so much going on in people's lives these days, the conscious mind often wanders off leaving the subconscious mind in charge and so incidents of "forgetfulness" seem to occur more and more often.  After a while the person starts to think they have a bad memory, they create an expectation and a belief which the subconscious dutifully fulfils and bingo  - we have a memory problem.

So what is the key to this?  Well understand that most memory challenges of this nature are caused by not concentrating.  If you stay more in the moment (easier said than done I know but definitely possible) then you will be more consciously aware and so will "forget" less.

Is there a story you have to share about "forgetting" something.  Why not drop me a line and let me know.