We All Hate Learning by Heart
Another side of memorizing.
How many times haven’t our professors in school asked us to memorize poems, definitions, critics etc.? Because of this we grew to hate the concept of memorizing, calling it also “learning by heart”. In many schools nowadays memorizing is condemned and focus is strictly on practical issues. But could the process of memorizing have any other role?
A person who cultivated their memory will never be bored, because they can always go back to the things in their mind to keep themselves busy. If one’s conscience is not ordered enough they might find themselves drifting in the ocean of their own thoughts.
First thing to be aware of is that the human conscience’s natural state is… chaos. In other words, your thoughts will just fly away in who knows what direction if you don’t do anything about it. Most of the times, when left to run wild, they linger on a painful or sad memory. In these cases you will do anything to get away from your own thoughts, or boredom (hence the people who hate being alone) and you will look for external stimuli. The most attractive one nowadays is the TV – it requires little psychological energy, all you have to do is just sit and watch. That’s how you explain why many people spend hours and hours watching TV programs they are not actually interested in.
If there is some kind of order in your conscience you don’t rely on external stimuli to make you feel happy, you are self dependent. External stimuli are all the things outside of you. This includes your friends, family, job, phone, computer, hobbies etc. Obviously I’m not saying that you should ignore all your friends and throw away your mobile phone. Self dependent means that you enjoy them but if a friend bails out on the dinner you planned, it’s not the end of the world.
Practicing your memory is one of the ways to put order in your conscience. To do this, you should choose a domain you’re really interested in. Nobody will like to remember things just because they have to (school/job requires it). Always look up new things about your area of interest. Pay good attention to key words and important ideas and memorizing will become so easy, that you won’t even think of it as memorizing.
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