Relax your body and calm your mind. Close your eyes and form a picture of something pleasant, perhaps a rose, or your cat, or the face of someone close to you. Focus on the picture in your mind.
Focus on a rose, see the edges of the petals coming together to a point at the top. See the smooth texture of the petals and see the leaves.
Imagine holding it in your hand. Imagine the feeling of having it in your hand. Imagine the fragrance as you bring it up to your nose.
Form a clear picture and focus on it. See the brightness of the colour. Focus on the picture and let your mind clear of all other thought.
Hold the picture for as long as you can.
Mentally note any thoughts that arise as you visualize the rose. Let them pass and focus back on the rose. Pay attention to what your mind is doing.
If you drift away don't force yourself back to the rose, let your mind think freely and try to drift back just as you drifted away. It may be helpful to look at the real thing before attempting this exercise.
Go through the same procedure with the real object then try it without the object. Spend ten or fifteen minutes on this exercise.
Try it with an unpleasant picture and pay attention to the different types of thought passing through your mind. Try it with a neutral object like a lightbulb or a shoe. Picture something funny or something sad.
This exercise demonstrates the effect emotion has on thinking. If the exercise did not produce a relatively clear image, focus on something that is very appealing to you. A double-decker tripple chocolate icecream cone works for me.
Visualization and your state of emotion affect the quality of learning. By observing the effect of emotionally charged material, you will understand that learning with feeling can help shape solid memories.
Important: It is best to be somewhat aroused while taking in new information. Be alert. When you are very interested in learning something, and are excited and motivated to learn, new information is easily absorbed. When you are bored, have no interest, or wish you were some where else, even concentrating on the topic won't help form a strong memory.
Try to visually imagine what you just learned verbally. Take the information in the paragraphs above and try to form it into a picture. This may be difficult for some, while being relatively easy for others.
When new information is registered consciously through more than one form of perception, for example, seeing it, hearing it, touching it, doing it, and watching yourself learn it, the memory is going to be much stronger.
Think of it as an experience involving all the senses rather than a bunch of static facts.
