Author:: [[Anthony Metivier]] DateFinished:: 4/12/2023 Rating:: 9 Tags:: # The Victorious Mind  ## 🚀The Book in 3 Sentences - Most people go about their days with a storm of intrusive thoughts and anxieties. - By implementing meditation, breathing exercises, journaling, effective eating, sleep, exercise, alongside a memorization practice using memory palaces we can temper these intrusive thoughts and anxieties and achieve a victorious mind. - Achieving a victorious mind is a never ending yet fulfilling process that can only be done through one word: action. ### 🎨 Impressions - This is one of those books that fundamentally changes you as a person. I came into this book one way, and exited another. - Anthony Metivier is a deeply relatable, transparent, and wise author. He fills his book with gripping stories (some of which admittingly are a little long) that illuminate the points he is trying to make throughout. - The only complain I could possibly make is the book is a little long and can be redundant at points, but it's meant to be. There are many points that must be reiterated and people not familiar with the techniques he describes will find them confusing at first. ### 📖Who Should Read It? - Everyone. Please. - Those interested in spirituality and meditation (first two parts of the book is better in this case) - Those interested in health and fitness (Chapter 4 is best in this case) - Those interested in improving their memory (hopefully everyone, but especially students) ### ☘️ How the Book Changed Me - Oh man, where to even start. Firstly, this book has completely reframed how I view meditation. I now see meditation as an exercise in present awareness and focus. I realize it's something that extends outside of the meditation practice to your whole day. - Secondly, I'm realizing the power of breathing techniques for creating certain states in the body. I am routinely using certain breathing patterns to relax me, focus me, ground me, or whatever else throughout my day. Even in combination with memorization techniques. - Thirdly, I have started to try remembering my dreams because of this book. - Fourthly and perhaps most valuably, I have started using the memory techniques talked about in this book. As of writing, I have created a full 00-99 Major System, a celebrity list, a pegword system, a initial memory palace network, gotten a memory journal, and used the memory techniques to memorize these major things: - 50 Anecdotes for IMP speeches - Drive: The New Science of Motivation - Many quotes from Shakespear and Marcus Aurelius - The Coddling Of The American Mind # Summary # Part I In the Eye of the Storm ### 1 Beyond the Buddha Smile to Bliss Most students go about their day asleep, their mind a constant hum drum of intrusive thoughts that go blah blah blah blah blah, da da da da da. Did I study enough for that exam, when's my next homework assignment, oh crap my essay's due tonight! **It's exhausting.** Anthony Metivier, author of the Victorious Mind was the exact same way until he learned to calm the storm raging inside his head. Using a combination of the meditation, journaling, and memory techniques he discusses in the book, he transitioned from a chronically depressed Ph.D. student to someone with a almost constant radiant joy for life. **In this book, he teaches you to do the same.** Why does the combination of these three things work? It's because using these techniques literally changes the structure of the brain. It moves your normal way of being in the brain from the default mode network--the part of the brain responsible for thoughts about the past and future--to the task positive network--the part of the brain responsible for thinking about the present. As a open ourselves up to experiencing a perpetual present, free from intrusive thoughts. We allow ourselves to experience what Anthony Metivier calls the Buddha smile, a radiant blissful feeling in the forehead behind which the task positive network resides in the brain. **But it doesn't just benefit us.** When we memorize information that enhances ourselves, we improve our ability to enhance potentially the entire population. We become magnetic attracting information that matters and repelling information that doesn't. We become guiding lights for other people to cultivate their own victorious minds. You might be thinking, that sounds more Woo Woo than Donkey Kong going down a slipping slide with Mario. I promise you it's not. I was skeptical at first to, but after *applying* the methods he talks about in the book, I have tempered the storm raging in my head. **I'm cultivating a victorious mind.** And you can to. Let's talk about how. # Part II Become the Storm This part is all about how to begin tempering the mind to open you up for the memory techniques introduced later on. ### 2 Mindfulness, Meditation, and Memory Improvement This chapter asks the question, why are meditation and memory so interlinked? It's because the quality at which we remember something is largely bent on of how aware we were at the time of encoding. Meditation at its core is about becoming more aware of the present. So practicing meditation cultivates better memory by making us more aware of the present. Ultimately the thesis of the book is quiet simple. **Achieving a victorious mind comes with practicing meditation, journaling, and starting a memorization practice on something useful. As the techniques get easier find something more challenging to memorize.** But just because it's simple doesn't mean it's easy. Nowadays awareness is at its lowest point ever, especially for my generation. We are constantly distracted by our digital devices, social media, and the news. It's no wonder my generation is the most anxious and depressed out of any previous one ever. That's where meditation comes in. Starting a meditation practice is really simple. For a defined period per day you make the intention to focus your attention on something. That's it. I like to meditate for ten minutes before I go for my exercise in the morning. For those getting started I recommend using Headspaces introduction to meditation program. However, the ultimate goal is to be able to meditate on your own with just yourself. Here are some of my favorite meditations. I encourage you to stop reading and try each one out for a couple minutes. I'm serious, get a timer. Applying what is in the book is the only way you an achieve a victorious mind. - Do nothing meditation. It's exactly like what it sounds like. For a set period you make the intention to do nothing. When intrusive thoughts come up simply brush them away and return to your state of doing nothing. - Body relaxation meditation. In this meditation you flex your muscles with the breadth from bottom to top. Starting with the feet, you flex them as your breathe in and relax them as you breath out. Then you work your way up to the face going through the calves, hamstrings and quads, the glutes, the abdominals, back, and chest, the shoulders and arms, the hands, and finally the face and neck. - Expanding consciousness meditation. In this meditation you slowly expand your consciousness from yourself to the universe. Start with your consciousness focused on a point on your forehead. Every fourth breadth expand your consciousness one rung out. From your forehead to your whole body, body to the room, room to the city or town you are in, then to the world, and finally to the universe as a whole. Hopefully these simple meditations can help you get started. The important thing to remember is that [[Meditation isn’t isolated to the meditation practice.]]. The purpose of the practice is for you to bring your awareness during the meditation into all of your days activities. You remain more present and set yourself up for the memory techniques to come. The next chapter helps solidify your meditation practice by adding the breadth as a present grounding art. ### 3 Breathing, Walking, Remembering: an Instant-on Magic Carpet Ride for Your Mind "Control the breadth and you control the mind." - Gary Webber Normally we breadth totally unconsciously. But the simple act of focusing on the breadth is a powerful way of grounding yourself in the present and a great addition to your meditation practice. Here are some of my favorite breathing exercises to use during meditation and throughout the day. Once again I encourage you to practice each of these breathing techniques while reading. Application is king: - Pendulum breathing. Breath in normally until when you would normally exhale, but then take a sharp tiny inhale afterward. Then exhale normally until when you would normally inhale, but then take a little more of an exhale. - Patterned breathing. Inhale for a count of 5, hold for 7, and exhale for 8. Why these numbers? No real reason. You can change them up anytime you want and should. Humans love variety and challenge so try to keep yourself in the [[Goldilocks zone]]. - Psychic alternate nostril breathing. Inhale through just the right of your nose, exhale from just your left and then inhale from just your left repeating the process but vice versa. You don't literally have to just breathe through one side of your nose. It might not be possible. The simple act of imagining your are will ground you in the present. Attentive readers might realize you can combine some of the breathing techniques mentioned with pendulum breathing to even more challenge to the exercise. I encourage you to practice these breathing exercises throughout your day to ground yourself in the present moment as a form of meditation. ### 4 You Think What You Eat Even if you practice meditation it won't fix a bad diet, exercise regime, or sleep schedule. Anthony explains that no matter how much you calm the storm inside your head, imbalance in any three of these things will cause the intrusive thoughts we are trying to get rid of to come back again. This book summary isn't meant to be a treatise on how to eat healthier, exercise, and sleep better. There are plenty of resources out there on that. But I do have one major tip from the book which I found very insightful. **Remember that your health is an N = 1.** There is no one else with your same body, genetics, and experiences. The food, exercise regime, and sleep schedule that works for someone else might not work for you. Therefore the best way to cultivate these three things isn't to blindly copy and paste someone else's regime exactly but rather to experiment. That's right you get to be your very own Albert Einstein. **Start a food, exercise, and sleep journal.** Write about how you feel after eating a meal, doing certain forms of exercise, and sleeping at certain times. Cultivate a personal practice that works for you. You need this triad health foundation for the true cultivation of a victorious mind. ### 6 How Rules Help Eliminate the Tyranny of Free Will This chapter is all about freeing yourself from the need to feel in control. (Technically these next two chapters appear in part III of the book but I thought they were better places in this second part) **A massive part of what brings us anxiety is the need to feel in control of our lives.** Anthony argues this need for control comes from the belief that we have free will. This could be an entire article in itself but ultimately, Anthony argues that free will is an illusion because everything we think we "have control over" is simply neurochemicals interacting in the brain to make us act. However, accepting our lack of free will isn't dreary but rather freeing. A victorious mind doesn't feel the need to be in control of everything. This resonates with me because of my background in Stoicism. One of the core fundamental tenets of Stoicism is that you should live your life through [[The dichotomy of control]]. There are only two things fully in our control: 1. Our reactions to our thoughts 2. Our actions **Everything else is outside of it.** Once again this isn't dreary but actually freeing because it allows you to avoid the incredible psychological anguish that comes from resisting the present. *Instead you can just be.* You can change the world for the better while appreciating it for what it is, and not putting your wellbeing on the outcome. To reach this beautiful state of non-control Anthony recommends the reader ingrains one of his favorite quotes from Tony Buzan: **"The rules will set you free."** By rules he means the values you live your life by, the habit stacks you create for yourself, the routines you follow, the memory techniques you ingrain. Instilling your own rules like these and following them isn't constraining but rather freeing. It allows you to fully immerse yourself in the present moment knowing you are following the rules you have defined and cultivated for yourself beforehand. When you desperately try to be in control of things without rules you submit yourself to the storm of intrusive thoughts and suffer as a result. **But when you surrender to the logic of putting structure around events and sticking with it, many great things happen as a result.** For example, most of my days are relatively the same. I wake up, exercise, write for 90 minutes, go to class, eat lunch, read, write, and take long walks, potentially socialize, get dinner, and read, journal, read some more and go to bed. Of course I deviate from this routine often but the rules surrounding it aren't constraining but freeing. They allow me to focus on the present moment knowing the activities I'm doing help me work towards my purpose day in and day out. ### 7 Meditative Journaling: Navigate Your Way to Calmer Seas For a long time I thought of journaling as simply an exercise in showing gratefulness. This was in large part due to the degree of mindless self help content online that all said the same thing: write what you are grateful for in the morning. **But after The Victorious Mind shows it's so much more than that.** Here are a couple of the main things I have learned about journaling. Firstly, it's a meditative practice. Journaling helps you navigate your way to calmer seas by allowing you to think through and process events. Admittingly the gratitude journaling mentioned by so many self-help gurus is encompassed in this and can be a profoundly happiness boosting activity. In fact, people who journal actually feel time slows down. When you process events and ask how they effected you, you see and use your time differently. **Time stops flowing by but rather through you.** Your life starts to slow down. Secondly, journaling allows you to do what I call [[Lifestyle Design MOC]]. Lifestyle design is the art of crafting the best possible life for you. It requires you to learn about yourself and use this information to create the best consistent average day. Journaling is one of the best ways to learn more about yourself because you can process how events effected you over the long term. Journaling allows you to come at your life like a scientist, asking what events, people, and activities make you feel a certain way and shifting course with that in mind. If you would like to check out how I use journaling for lifestyle design more in depth check out my video [Creating My Best Average Day With Obsidian Periodic Notes](https://youtu.be/k9H9uJA4NlE). # Part III Calm the Storm This part is focuses on how you can enhance your memory with memory techniques building off the meditation, breathing, journaling, and health exercises mentioned earlier. The reason Anthony started the book talking about meditation, breathing, journaling, and health BEFORE getting into the memory techniques is because they are the foundation to cultivating the most capable mind for memorization. Why are memory techniques the ultimate last step? Because at the end of the day cultivating a victorious mind involves learning to live more mindfully in the present. And as we will see combining memory techniques with meditation, breathing, and journaling is the true key to staying in the present. This is the because the memory techniques take a tremendous amount of focus and present awareness to use to their full potential. And the best part? They're really really fun to use. But staying present more often isn't the only benefit. Fostering a greater memory can help you: - Study more effectively in less time - Learn more effectively by establishing a knowledge foundation of a topic - Increase creativity - Slow time down - Memorize vocabulary for a language - Memorize sentences - Memorize speech topics for giving a speech So what are we waiting for! Let's learn how to get all these benefits for ourselves. ### 8 Memory Palaces The foundation of all the other memorization techniques is the [[Memory palaces|memory palace]]. Memory palaces involve visualizing real or fake locations with images inside to assist in retrieving memories. The general idea is to take a place that you know quite well, like the candy store in town--you know you frequented that place a lot, admit it--and place vivid images inside of them representing the things you want to remember. Then remembering becomes a simple act of walking through your memory palace in your mind's eye and recalling whatever you want to remember from the images throughout. Memory palaces work so well to memorize information because they work off the facts that humans have incredible spatial memory and an incredible memory for vivid, unexpected, and strange visualizations. **There actually better rote learning through flashcards.** Seriously, the more you use the memory palace technique the more confused you will be at why this is *never* taught in school. For example, recently, I have been doing lots of Impromptu Speaking in Speech and Debate. It requires tons memorizing short anecdotes to exemplify points you want to make in speeches. So I have made my childhood home into a memory palace by placing incredibly memorable images throughout that serve as cue reminders for the Impromptu stories I want to tell. Take this impromptu story. During the three kingdoms period, the general Ma Su was tasked with defending Jieting from an invading army led by the famous clever and intelligent general, Zhuge Liang. Despite being warned by his advisers about the strength of the enemy forces and the risks of deploying an untested strategy, Ma Su insisted on deploying an "invisible army" with unmanned tents and fake soldiers to confuse the enemy. The plan backfired miserably because Zhuge Liang himself had used the invisible army strategy before. In effect, he was able to get a surprise attack on Ma Su's army destroying them. This story shows the danger of ignoring outside feedback. This would take quite a long time to remember rotely, and even if I did, I likely wouldn't remember it years later if prompted. **Instead, I encapsulate this entire story in one image inside a closet on the third floor of my childhood home.** The image has Goku with a chinese beard--meant to remind me of Ma Su, get it Goku, Ma Su--being whispered to by two Chinese advisors. They are hiding behind a fake tent with fake soldiers, which reminds me of the fake army strategy. Finally, Zhuge Liang sounds like "Huge Long" so I have an image of a super huge long Chinese general on a horse attacking Ma Su's encampment. I have done this for every one of my anecdotes for IMP. All the images are located spatially throughout my home in recognizable places, so remembering them is simply an act of "walking" through the home in my head and seeing the images pop up. But you don't just have to have one memory palace. #### The Memory Palace Network Having just one memory palace is only the start. **The true beauty of this technique comes with creating an interconnected network of memory palaces to allow for memorizing vast amounts of things.** You need to create a memory palace network. It's actually really simple. I suggest you do this exercise right now. Go and get a pen or pencil and paper. I'll wait. I have my peanut butter to keep me company. Got it. Good. Got through and write down all the letters of the alphabet. Than go through each letter and come up with every memory palace that comes to mind for that letter. You can start by thinking about people associated with that letter and then move on to people, places, actions, or objects to spur more memory palaces. For example, my memory palaces for the letter B include: - Beebe Lake - Becker Hall - Ben Coddington's Barn - Byrne Dairy Hamilton - Brainshop Cornell As you can see the memory palace locations you come up with don't have to be directly associated with the letter. For example, you might use a movie theatre for a L memory palace because you watched the Lord of the Rings inside of it. Going through this exercise you will realize you have more memory palaces than you could possibly need for the short term. ###### Indexing Your Memory Palaces What's the usefulness of having the memory palaces organized by the alphabet? It makes an easy to understand indexing system. As you create more and more memory palaces you will start to have more than you can keep track. You might forget where you stored certain information or what memory palace to put new information in. But when your memory palaces are organized alphabetically it becomes obvious where to store information. You put it in the relevant alphabetical memory palace. For example, I put my anecdotes for Speech inside of an A memory palace, Astrid and Ian's home. I stored a quote from Marcus Aurelius I like in an M memory palace. I stored my memorizations from the book Drive in two connected D memory palaces. The alphabet serves as my brains own index. ##### The Memory Journal Another crucial aspect of using the Memory Palace technique is creating a memory journal. Your memory journal is the place where you keep all of your associated things related to your memory practice. Here's mine: ![[E726EA57-2D7D-4A6F-9F45-AB106AC8994B.jpeg]] Gotta support the Cornell Brand am I right? The front is for drawing out your memory palaces. The back is for practicing recall of the information inside from memory. Anthony believes drawing out your memory palaces *before* you try and memorize anything inside of them is so helpful because it allows you to put all of your focus into creating magnetic imagery rather than trying to figure out what order and where to put things inside of your memory palace. The process of drawing your memory palaces shouldn't take more than 1-5 minutes. All it is is a matter of drawing out the structure of the palace from your mind and indicating the different magnetic stations--places where you will put images into to associate with things you want to remember--and then number and ordering those stations as well as indicating in a collum what each of the stations represents in the memory palace. Here's what some of my drawn out memory palaces look like: ![[image 1.jpg]] We will talk more about how to go about recall rehearsal--the act of recalling information from your memory palaces later on--but for now know that the back of your memory palace journal is for writing down the things you are trying to recall from memory. Here's one of my back pages in my memory journal: ![[image.jpg]] ### Three Most Common Mistakes Regarding Memory Palaces 1. People "save" their best memory palaces for more important information. Don't procrastinate memorizing because you want to save your best memory palaces for later. Get started now. 2. People think memory palaces are for storing information. They are for assisting in your embedding of it into long term memory, not for storing the information itself. 3. People think they will run out of memory palaces. Firstly, this will take years before it could ever be an issue and you can make more. Secondly, you can reuse memory palaces by getting rid of old images inside of them. You might be wondering, how do you encode information into the memory palaces in the most sticky way? A way that allows that information to stick in mind for years and years. That's what the next chapter is all about. ### 9 Mental Lego, or the Secrets of Encoding Any Information Using Magnetic Imagery When thinking about how to encode a visualization that is sticky there are only a few things that you have to consider: - We remember connected things - Humans have incredible spatial memory - Humans remember vivid, surprising, and vulgar things. So when encoding information into our memory palaces we want to try and take all of these things into account. But there's one more way to superpower your encodings so they stick out like a sore thumb, a good thing in this case. Make them personal to you. Instead of using any old cup in a memory palace, use the cup your dad has that says "being 60 isn't all that bad!" Instead of using any old bee use Berry Bensen from the Bee movie. Instead of using any old knight use a knights radiant from the Stormlight archives. How do you build your store of personal associations? **Part of it comes down to simply being more aware of the world.** The more awareness you bring to your everyday life the more personal things you will find to encode into your memory palaces. That's part of the reason the memory techniques are such a powerful present cultivating practice. They get you to really be in the present. One thing Anthony recommends you do, however, is to create a celebrity list. The celebrity list is a list of prominent people in your life you create to use inside of the images in your memory palaces. It works off the idea that celebrities are incredibly memorable, so using them in your image associations makes sense. Just like with creating your memory palace network, write down a list A through Z and then go one by one through each letter thinking of every celebrity you can come up with. They don't technically have to be celebrities. They can also be prominant people you have known in your life. **The list is personal to you.** Anthony does this exercise a couple times a year and finds that it always brings with a ton of new mental associations he can use inside of his encodings. But there's much more that we can do to make our encodings stick. #### The Magnetic Modes and Magnetic Characteristics The main way Anthony recommends you make encodings stick aside from making them personal is by utilizing the Magnetic Modes. Each magnetic mode involves a different sense of the body and mind. The more of these you encode in any single visualization, the more *magnetic* it is in your mind and easier it will be to decode when visiting the visualization later on. It's magnetic because it pulls the information you are trying to remember deeper into memory while repelling the information you aren't trying to remember. It's essential in this process that you create personal associations for each of these modes. The more personal they are to you, the more sticky they will be in your mind. The magnetic modes can be summed up with the acronym KAVE COGS which stands for: K - Kinesthetic A - Auditory V - Visual E - Emotional C - Conceptual O - Olfactory G - Gustatory S - Spatial In addition, to the KAVE COGS memory modes you can make encodings more sticky by implementing the magnetic characteristics as well which are:  I will give one example. A few days ago I was memorizing a line from Marcus Aurelius's Meditations that went "Not of the same blood or birth, but of the same mind." I already had a M memory palace--Morrison Hall at Cornell--drawn out and ready to go for this memorization. The only thing I had to do was create the encodings. The first step was isolating the uncommon words. Words like blood, birth, and mind. Than I tried to come up with a encoding that would encapsulate the first three. After a few seconds I came up with Dracula--which associates with *blood*--tied to a table with rope--associating with *not*--giving *birth* to a baby that was made of brain matter--associating with *mind*. **Disgusting I know. But that's what makes it memorable.** Than I ran through KAVE COGS and tried to add in each magnetic mode. For kinesthetic I *felt* the pain of giving birth. For auditory I *heard* Dracula screaming in anguish. For visual I *saw* Dracula giving birth to a baby brain while tied to a table in Morrison Hall. For emotional I *felt* Dracula's happiness and relief at having successfully birthed. For conceptual I imagined Dracula being *related* to blood. For olfactory I *smelled* the blood from Dracula. For gustatory I couldn't think of anything (not every magnetic mode must be used for every visualization). Finally spatial was already naturally incorporated because of the encoding being inside of a memory palace. The result is an image I can't help but remember every time I go back to that memory palace and that sentence from Marcus Aurelius forever being in my head. Use the same step by step process I just did for encoding information into a memory palace, and you can effectively encode anything, words, speeches, names, books, concepts etc. ### Memory Palace Sea Shelling And Magnetic Bridging Figures ### Sea Shelling The last thing you want to have become a problem while using a memory palace is getting stumbled upon where you are in your memory palace journey. However, going with the common advice of starting at the entrance to a memory palace will c cause this to occur. You will cross your path. Instead, Anthony recommends sea shelling a technique where you navigate clockwise or counterclockwise around a room at the micro level or an entire memory palace network at the macro level. To make things even easier you don't even have to walk around the room in your mind if you don't want. You can stand at a specific spot and simply peer inside navigating the stations. Another great tip to make sure you don't dead end yourself is to start at a dead end in your memory palace like at the top floor somewhere. ###### Magnetic Bridging Figures Magnetic Bridging figures are figures you can use as an anchor to a memory palace journey that show up in every encoding. For example, if you were creating a memory palace for learning German words that start with ab, Abraham Lincoln would be a fantastic bridging figure to use. ##### The Major System You can even encode numbers into a memory palace. That's right no more issues ever remembering the invention of peanut butter ever again. Just me? Okay. Well, you can use The Major System to remember equations for classes, dates, and more by turning numbers into memorable encodings. Here's how it works. The major system is a method for converting numbers into sounds which you can then turn into memorable images you can place inside a memory palace. Essentially, the system works by converting numbers into consonants, as shown below, and then turning those consonants into words by adding vowels. Because none of the numbers are associated with a vowel noise, you can decode your images through analyzing which consonant sounds the word makes when speaking it out loud.  For example, let's say you wanted to remember the number 12. 1 stands for the consonant d or t and 2 for n. What word has a t or a d first and ends with an n? Dino! And what's a recognizable image for the word dino? Trex! So to remember 12, you would place a Trex inside your memory palace. Now if you want to remember a long set of numbers like from your credit card, say 1127-5678-4945-3145 (don't worry, this isn't as actually my credit card number lol), all you have to do is convert each number couplet into an image and then place them in a memory palace in the order you want to remember them in. In this case, the Trex would be first, followed by more images. **Isn't that so cool!** If you want to create your own Major System, I don't recommend you create an entire one from scratch coming up with the words yourself. There are tons of example major lists online that you can borrow words from and than create personal images out of. Trust me, it's way faster than creating it on your own. I know from personal experience. ### 10 How To Remember What You Encode and Get Faster You might be thinking, my goodness this sounds like it would take ages! **The simple hard truth is it does take time.** But paradoxically it saves time and energy in the long run. If you studied using more traditional (but worse) methods like blunt forced spaced reptation, passive reading, or the worst, no studying at all, in the short term you could get away with it. I know more than enough students who survived most of high school and college studying the couple of days before a test in a caffeine fueled spiral of death. But these memory techniques allow you to be different. **Not only do they ingrain knowledge deeper into memory, but they are fun to use and get faster and faster the more you use them.** In this chapter Anthony explains all about how we can remember the encodings we put into our memory palaces as well as how we can begin to memorize them faster. It's done through a process Anthony calls Recall rehearsal. Recall rehearsal is the art of routinely going through your memory palace(s) and decoding the knowledge present in them. Why do we have to go through recall rehearsal? It's because unfortunately, we humans are tubes of meat, and have evolved to forget knowledge we don't apply. This rate at which we forget information was first studied and encapsulated in Ernest Ebbinghause's [[The forgetting curve|forgetting curve]]. According to his curve, we forget most information in the 24 hours after consuming something and slowly forget more and more over ensuing weeks, months, and years without recall practice. But if we routinely actively recall knowledge we want to keep we can fight the forgetting curve through a technique known as spaced repetition. That's where recall rehearsal comes in. So how often do we have to recall rehearse? Dominic O Brien, a very prominent memory champion, recommends you recall rehearse information using the system described below: Day 1: Go through memory palace once. 24 hours later: Go through memory palace once. 1 week later: Go through memory palace once. 1 month later: Go through memory palace once. 3 months later: Go through memory palace once. This is a good starting place. However, this recalling method has an issue because it disregards the serial positioning effect. The serial positioning effect describes how we tend to remember the beginning and end of information we are remembering than the middle which is similar to the [[Peak end rule]]. The issue with the previous memorization method is there is no regard for this fact. You memorize linearly the whole way thorugh. This means you are more likely to forget the middle of your memory palace journey. How do we fix this? Anthony recommends what he does whenever recall rehearsing from one of his memory palaces: 1. Go forward through your memory palace(s) 2. Go backward through your memory palace(s) 3. Go outside in (through your memory palace(s) 4. Go inside out through your memory palace(s) 5. Optional: randomly roll and go to that numbered station in your memory palace Recall rehearsing in this way allows Anthony to fight back against the serial positioning effect by giving every part of his memory palace the memory benefit of being first or last. Remember that this is a *method*, not a system. You can and should change it to work with your memorization needs. So how often should we do recall rehearsal? Unfortunately, the answer is it depends upon your goals in memorization. Are you memorizing something you need to have down to a tea, or something more for fun? This will effect how often you recall. Generally I use Dominic's method as a foundation and recall more or less depending on how I feel about the information. ###### What If You Make A Mistake While Recall Rehearsing? If you make a mistake you can compound that mental encoding by adding running through KAVE COGS again, adding more of the magnetic characteristics mentioned earlier, or adding more mental encodings. #### How Can We Get Faster In Our Memory Practice? When you are first starting to use these memory practices you won't be that fast, especially if you came from the world of social media and constant distraction. You are training your encoding muscles, learning the techniques, and hopefully eating peanut butter to rejuvenate. I wish there was some secret magic pill I could give you, but unfortunately, like with all the great things in life getting faster is simply a process practicing more and more. **But the more you practice the more something magical will begin to happen.** You will start to give in control to the memory techniques. Your brain will get so good at creating memorable encodings that you can start to do so with less and less conscious effort. Sometimes you will come across a number or quote you want to memorize and the memory encodings will come straight to mind faster than you could consciously imagine. You will submit yourself to the art of memory formation (it is truly art) giving in to your unconscious minds suggested encodings. **It's a beautiful feeling.** But one that can only come with practice. ### 12 Where To Start? How To Overcome Beginners Paralysis If you have read to this point, you truly care about making a difference in your life. The question than becomes, where do you start? I can't emphasize this point enough. It matters less where you start as that you actually apply the techniques. **Don't let perfectionism become the enemy of the good.** Memorize something. Something that you might use in your everyday life. Not a shopping list. Memorize something that will make you realize the power of the techniques! If you would like some suggestions on where to start here is my list on things I might memorize in the future: - Memorizing my Anecdotes for IMP speech - Memorize scripture, Bible, Analects, Tao Te Ching, etc. - Memorize story structure highlights of her - Memorizing main ideas from books like Coddling of the American Mind, Drive, and more - Memorize major dates of history - Memorizing my credit card number or dates for IMP examples - Create a memory palace summarizing all of history - Create a memory palace summarizing all of philosophy - Memorizing names of new people I meet - Memorize speech topics for Speech - Memorizing poetry - Memorizing favorite lines from books or literature I have read Pick something and go with it. Practice for ten minutes a day. No more if you can't. Just do something. Don't let this become another self-help article you read without action. # Part IIII No More Storms? ### 16 The Victorious Mind Implement the ideas talked about in this article, meditation, breathing, eating healthily, sleeping, exercising, journaling, memorizing things using memory palaces, and you will achieve a profound transformation. **You will cultivate a victorious mind.** You will start to feel a reduction in useless thoughts. The calming of the storm. You will still have planning thoughts, like when you are creating encodings for knowledge, but you will no longer be bashed by endless anxious ruminations. But that's not all. **You will become more present.** "[The] awareness is ultimately where memory techniques and meditation meet. When you fine-tune your mind enough to be present and memorize a person’s name in real time, you’re not just aware of your memory. You have become the act of memory itself." - [[Anthony Metivier]] You have achieved a victorious mind. **People will notice.** They'll see you can draw an unusually large body of knowledge. They will admire the fluidity and interestingness of your ideas. They'll *feel* the radiant joy that emanates from everything you touch. They will become interested in how you do it. You'll share everything you learned in this article. **Then they will themselves cultivate a victorious mind starting the process all over again.** ## Highlights ### Part I In the Eye of the Storm ##### 1 Beyond the Buddha Smile to Bliss Ultimately, if you can get yourself to train, these techniques are about rewiring the physical brain to experience fewer intrusive thoughts because the structures producing the thoughts have been changed. ([Location 530](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=530)) Weber explains—and his conclusions are based on a combination of his own experience and scientific literature—the practices seem to release us from past-present-future cognition taking place in the “default mode network” of the brain. Where do we go instead? Into the “task-positive network,” where we exist “in the zone” or in a “state of flow.” Except this state, once you get it, is far better than those words suggest: for me, with minimal practice, much suffering faded, fear strangely disappeared and memory improved merely by the present-moment living this approach accelerated. By following the instructions in Happiness Beyond Thought, what was formerly peanut-sized short-lived pleasure at the center of my forehead is now experienced as astonishingly enduring bliss that seems to blossom from exactly where this task-positive network is thought to reside in the brain. I’ve written this book in the hopes you too can achieve similar bliss, focus and clarity. ([Location 531](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=531)) ## New highlights added 06-04-2023 at 9:01 PM Rather, allowing a variety of experiential practices to work in parallel makes more sense. ([Location 584](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=584)) - Note: Rigidly sticking to one meditation technique counterintuitively makes it harder to attain spiritual enlightenment. You solidify the ego around that meditation practice. each of us has to re-new our awareness of our awareness by constantly refreshing through continued learning. ([Location 587](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=587)) our beliefs do not shape our behaviors. It is our behaviors, based on internal images of identity that shape what we believe about ourselves and others. ([Location 640](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=640)) When we memorize information that enhances ourselves, we improve our ability to enhance, potentially, the entire population. I’ll explain why I think this is true in the next section. And remember: it’s the ability to focus on the information that matters and repel the information that doesn’t that makes it all Magnetic. ([Location 779](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=779)) - Note: The reason it’s called magnetic memory method is like a magnet you learn how to make important information you want to stick stick, while repelling negative information you know you don’t want. ### Part II Become the Storm ##### 2 Mindfulness, Meditation, and Memory Improvement What’s the benefit in this change in perspective? It’s at least twofold. Such an enhanced level of observation improves the use of memory techniques, which rely heavily on accessing your past mental experiences of observing features in the world. The more present you are to them during the original experience, the stronger they remain when you draw upon them later. And secondly, some of this quasi-psychedelic fascination with previously banal objects in the world likely comes from how meditation increases certain chemicals in the brain. And who would complain about a heightened aesthetic experience of everyday life? ([Location 844](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=844)) frustration takes place when people are caught up in the outcome. Instead of focusing on the process, they are attached to and trying to control a future that hasn’t arrived yet. ([Location 873](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=873)) At the end of the day, the how is quite simple: Keep reading this book. Find something you want to memorize. Find a place to meditate. Begin to memorize. As the techniques get easier, find more challenging things to memorize. ([Location 892](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=892)) ##### 3 Breathing, Walking, Remembering: an Instant-on Magic Carpet Ride for Your Mind ## New highlights added 07-04-2023 at 7:01 AM As Gary Weber translates these lines: Control the breath and you control the mind, like throwing a net over a wild parrot. ([Location 1254](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=1254)) - Note: Your breadth acts as a feather for your mind throughout the day. ## New highlights added 08-04-2023 at 8:26 AM When you put these breathing practices to work for yourself, either in a park or seated on the floor before submitting to a cold spray of water, you’ll discover countless ways to inhale, exhale and withhold your breath. You can also mix and match the patterns with various memory exercises. I do, and the effect is powerful. ([Location 1366](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=1366)) - Note: Is this because your breadths can serve as an anchor for concentrating on creating memory palaces. One pleasant breathing pattern involves inhaling to a count of 5, holding your breath for a count of 7 and exhaling to a count of 8. Why these numbers? I’m not entirely sure, but I came across them, enjoyed the process and used the pattern for months before moving on to another pattern. ([Location 1368](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=1368)) Variety appears to be necessary for humans, so whenever you feel bored, change the numbers to recalibrate your focus and keep the exercises fresh. Remember to keep seeking the sweet spot on the Challenge-Frustration Curve. ([Location 1371](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=1371)) ##### 4 You Think What You Eat I first encountered this word in Gary Weber’s Happiness Beyond Thought, in which he discusses eating according to Ayurvedic principles. He recommends keeping a food journal and suggests that mental peace can be assisted by seeking out “sattvic” foods. Whereas rajasic foods are said to create a lot of energy at the expense of peace of mind, sattvic foods calm the mind. Then there are tamasic foods that leave you feeling dull and possibly moody. ([Location 1671](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=1671)) This is the logic behind n=1 elimination diet and the rotation diet. “N=1” is one of those scientific terms transplanted from one science into another that essentially has come to mean: “There is only one test subject in this study: you.” And that is the basis upon which I proceeded, and I think we all must proceed. Memory training and meditation are much the same. ([Location 1675](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=1675)) ##### 5 Victorious Dreaming: How to Remember Your Dreams and Milk Them of Genuine Meaning ## New highlights added 08-04-2023 at 10:26 PM In total, Langs suggests there are three major guilt-related sources of death anxiety. These are: Predatory anxiety (from the feeling of being preyed upon by others). Predator anxiety (from the feeling of having preyed on others). Existential anxiety (from random or unpredictable elements of reality, such as storms and car crashes. ([Location 1862](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=1862)) According to Langs, the unconscious mind eradicates our recognition of the fact that we threaten and attack others all the time while filtering out conscious recognition of being preyed upon. It is extremely difficult to admit this, and if you’re struggling to see the logic behind this, Langs went so far as to suggest this may be because your unconscious mind is blocking your ability to recognize it as a fact. Predatory anxiety occurs when we feel that we have been preyed upon in some manner. This could have to do with competition at work, insults received or seemingly petty things like being cut off in traffic or having someone steal our place in line at the grocery store. The idea that the unconscious mind serves as a kind of filter is a core premise Dr. Langs unfolds most completely in his book, Death Anxiety and Clinical Practice. It’s not light reading, but still recommended. ([Location 1865](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=1865)) There are at least two ways you can use Dr. Langs’ ideas in improving your memory by combining them with meditation: ([Location 1901](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=1901)) Remembering your dreams is a creative memory exercise that both improves recall and gives you greater access to memory tools such as Memory Palaces, Magnetic Imagery and Magnetic Bridging Figures (we’ll get to these in Part III). ([Location 1902](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=1902)) Second, interpreting your dreams in a way similar to what Dr. Langs suggested is a means of using these images and narratives as a catalyst for exploration to arrive at insight for the future rather than meaning about the past. As far as I can tell, the countless guides that gather archetypes and possible interpretations of what it means to drown, kiss or set things on fire in a dream amount to little more than pablum. ([Location 1904](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=1904)) ## New highlights added 10-04-2023 at 5:28 PM ### Part III Calm the Storm ##### 6 How Rules Help Eliminate the Tyranny of Free Will The whole point of this chapter is not really to argue about whether free will exists or not, but rather to help you see that it isn’t necessary for progress. ([Location 2165](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=2165)) When we can release ourselves from this illusion and harness more of our will, we can work on crafting meaningful “habit stacks” that help us navigate life’s storms with greater consistency and ease. ([Location 2186](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=2186)) I believe that clinging on to the notion of free will is at the core of the problem. Why? Because when I tried to be in control of things without rules, I failed and suffered as a result. But by surrendering to the logic of putting structure around events and sticking with it, many great things have happened as a result. ([Location 2218](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=2218)) ##### 7 Meditative Journaling: Navigate Your Way to Calmer Seas people who journal not only remember more but experience time differently—they feel like they have more of it. Journaling helps make time feel less scarce, which makes sense. When you reflect on where your time went, you behave differently and make different choices. Plus, if you use journaling to help yourself focus on more positive thoughts, you can create feelings of happiness and well-being. ([Location 2421](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=2421)) ##### 8 Memory Palaces ##### 9 Mental Lego, or the Secrets of Encoding Any Information Using Magnetic Imagery ## New highlights added 11-04-2023 at 8:17 AM In order to have an ample supply of this imagery, we need to: Gather a bunch in advance of needing it Develop the ability to create spontaneous Magnetic Imagery ([Location 3180](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=3180)) Just as you can divide your Memory Palace lists into categories like schools, homes and churches, you can divide your lists into types like actors, artists, musicians, friends and teachers. ([Location 3188](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=3188)) A side benefit of these exercises in my experience is that people start paying more attention in everyday life. This may happen because the use of memory techniques and related developmental exercises does not fundamentally differ from many meditation and mindfulness routines. ([Location 3301](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=3301)) Preparation involves relaxing the mind. When the mind is tense, busy or exhausted, it will resist attempts at memorization. ([Location 3305](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=3305)) ## 10 How to Practice Memorizing Tons of Information Fast! ### Highlight (yellow) - Page 311 · Location 3325 10 How to Practice Memorizing Tons of Information Fast! ### Note - Page 311 · Location 3325 .h3 ### Highlight (yellow) - Page 319 · Location 3412 the information we encounter first and last about a topic tends to be remembered better almost by default. ### Highlight (yellow) - Page 320 · Location 3415 Von Restorff Effect— also called the Isolation Effect. It tells us that when a piece of information stands out from other information, it is more likely to be remembered. ### Highlight (yellow) - Page 321 · Location 3429 After travelling your Memory Palaces forward from the first Magnetic Station to the last, perform the following five steps to perform a Recall Rehearsal exercise. Following these steps can hack the Serial Positioning Effect and give each piece of information you’ve encoded equal amounts of primacy and recency: Travel your Memory Palace journeys forward. Travel your Memory Palace journeys backward. Travel your Memory Palace journeys from the center to the beginning and from the center to the end. Travel the Magnetic Stations of your Memory Palace by leapfrogging or skipping over even and odd stations, both forward and backward. Pop into random Magnetic Stations once in a while, e.g., Magnetic Station 7 at one time and then later to Magnetic Station 2. ### Highlight (yellow) - Page 323 · Location 3453 A lot of people think of using a Memory Palace and Magnetic Imagery as replaying a movie in their minds. This is an incorrect and potentially harmful metaphor. Why? The answer is simple. Movies are exactly the same every time you watch them. The only changes are in how you and your life circumstances evolve between each viewing. But when it comes to moving through a Memory Palace, the Magnetic Imagery you created during the encoding process never stays exactly the same. ### Highlight (yellow) - Page 324 · Location 3466 When correcting your Magnetic Imagery so that it’s stronger, use what I call the Principle of Compounding. This simply means you add new material, reduce unnecessary or confusing elements and make the Magnetic Imagery bigger, brighter and more colorful while going through KAVE COGS again. ### Highlight (yellow) - Page 325 · Location 3474 How often and for how long must you do this? The honest answer frustrates some people, but here it is anyway: it depends. ### Highlight (yellow) - Page 329 · Location 3517 There’s another reason Recall Rehearsal is so much more powerful than using index cards, spaced-repetition software or old-fashioned rote learning. Instead of using the “blunt force hammer” of repetition to attempt to permanently stamp out memories from nothing at all, you’ll now be using your Magnetic imagination. You’ll be constantly exploring connections and developing your creativity. Plus, the more you use your memory, the better and faster you get. You’ll learn more and the more you learn, the more you can learn. ## 11 Learn Mindfulness by Memorizing Names ### Highlight (yellow) - Page 332 · Location 3544 11 Learn Mindfulness by Memorizing Names ### Note - Page 332 · Location 3545 .h3 ## 12 Where to Start? How to Overcome Beginner’s Paralysis ### Highlight (yellow) - Page 347 · Location 3697 12 Where to Start? How to Overcome Beginner’s Paralysis ### Note - Page 347 · Location 3698 .h3 ### Highlight (yellow) - Page 347 · Location 3702 “Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.” — Confucius ### Highlight (yellow) - Page 359 · Location 3823 There are five crucial activities that help ensure you encode something in long-term memory. ### Highlight (yellow) - Page 359 · Location 3825 the Big 5 of Learning, they are: Reading Writing Speaking Listening Remembering and Recalling ## 13 Bringing It All Together ### Highlight (yellow) - Page 362 · Location 3855 13 Bringing It All Together ### Note - Page 362 · Location 3856 .h3 ## 14 Who Are You Really and Why Should You Memorize Self-Inquiry Questions to Find Out? ### Highlight (yellow) - Page 416 · Location 4401 14 Who Are You Really and Why Should You Memorize Self-Inquiry Questions to Find Out? ### Note - Page 416 · Location 4402 .h3 ### Highlight (yellow) - Page 428 · Location 4551 Swami Dayananda deals with the problem of the teacher by focusing on the role of language: “A teacher can communicate only by words which are known to him as well as to the student.” There is great wisdom in this observation that gets to the core of so many problems in the learning of both memory techniques and meditation. In memory training, the student will encounter terms like Memory Palace and method of loci. Are they different? If so, how? Then what about linking, pegs and the Major Method? ### Highlight (yellow) - Page 430 · Location 4585 This awareness is ultimately where I feel memory techniques and meditation meet. When you fine-tune your mind enough to be present and memorize a person’s name in real time, you’re not just aware of your memory. You have become the act of memory itself. ## Part IV No More Storms? ### Highlight (yellow) - Page 434 · Location 4615 Part IV No More Storms? ### Note - Page 434 · Location 4615 .h1 ## 15 Cruising Altitude ### Highlight (yellow) - Page 435 · Location 4616 15 Cruising Altitude ### Note - Page 435 · Location 4616 .h3 ### Highlight (yellow) - Page 436 · Location 4637 all the meditation and self-inquiry in the world can only take you so far. You need a moral compass. ### Highlight (yellow) - Page 437 · Location 4646 Assembling with others is the most likely path to lasting stability or what I like to think of as “cruising altitude.” It’s tricky finding people who can enjoy the headier ideas of the woo-woo without falling for it hook, line and sinker. But they’re out there and you can find them. ## 16 The Victorious Mind ### Highlight (yellow) - Page 438 · Location 4649 16 The Victorious Mind ### Note - Page 438 · Location 4649 .h3 ### Highlight (yellow) - Page 439 · Location 4669 the absence of thoughts is not the goal of a Victorious Mind that wants to learn, remember and participate in the world at the highest possible levels given the circumstances at hand. ### Note - Page 439 · Location 4670 The absence of thought is not the goal of the victorious mind. It’s the tempering of thoughts that are useless that is the goal. The calming of the storm. Planning thoughts, however, are still crucial. ### Highlight (yellow) - Page 440 · Location 4676 any wavering on sleep or diet leads to just as many horrible thoughts and impulses as before. Meditation can help, but even then only to take the edge off. Weber is right that these tools help. I’ve been using them to dissolve the thoughts that aren’t useful. Still, the best practice is to sleep and eat in ways that prevent these thoughts from knocking at the mental door in the first place. ## New highlights added 16-04-2023 at 12:53 PM This awareness is ultimately where I feel memory techniques and meditation meet. When you fine-tune your mind enough to be present and memorize a person’s name in real time, you’re not just aware of your memory. You have become the act of memory itself. ([Location 4585](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=4585)) ### Part IV No More Storms? ##### 15 Cruising Altitude all the meditation and self-inquiry in the world can only take you so far. You need a moral compass. ([Location 4637](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=4637)) Assembling with others is the most likely path to lasting stability or what I like to think of as “cruising altitude.” It’s tricky finding people who can enjoy the headier ideas of the woo-woo without falling for it hook, line and sinker. But they’re out there and you can find them. ([Location 4646](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=4646)) ##### 16 The Victorious Mind the absence of thoughts is not the goal of a Victorious Mind that wants to learn, remember and participate in the world at the highest possible levels given the circumstances at hand. ([Location 4669](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=4669)) - Note: The absence of thought is not the goal of the victorious mind. It’s the tempering of thoughts that are useless that is the goal. The calming of the storm. Planning thoughts, however, are still crucial. any wavering on sleep or diet leads to just as many horrible thoughts and impulses as before. Meditation can help, but even then only to take the edge off. Weber is right that these tools help. I’ve been using them to dissolve the thoughts that aren’t useful. Still, the best practice is to sleep and eat in ways that prevent these thoughts from knocking at the mental door in the first place. ([Location 4676](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B085D8M7S5&location=4676))