Can Networking Actually Improve Your Memory?
No matter what you are doing, whether it is shopping for groceries, getting your nails done, sitting at the park with your children, or attending a networking gathering, researchers have found that ten minutes of face to face contact improves memory and boosts intellectual performance. This research published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin is fascinating. Think about it, just ten minutes of talking, face to face or even by phone, improves memory and boosts intellectual performance as much as intellectual endeavors such as math and crossword puzzles. We are social creatures at heart and now it looks like we are also social creature "at mind".
This is very good news for someone like me who is not great at intellectual endeavors such as math or crossword puzzles (my mother was a champion, she loves puzzles and was good at them) but I love people, especially talented and amazing like-minded women.
I am excited to think that now, along with strengthening and growing your business, The Heart Link Network™ an international women's networking organization based on the female endocrine system, can also help you to keep your memory strong. When I created the concept of women networking based on their endocrine systems, I thought of hundreds of ways that it could help and benefit women, but honestly, improving memory was not on my original list. University of Michigan psychologist Oscar Ybarra and his team asked more than 3,500 people ages 24 to 96 about their social interactions and tested their working memories. What they found was that regardless of age, the more social contact each person had, the higher their level of mental function. The researchers also split 76 college students into three groups. One group spent 10 solitary minutes doing intellectual exercises (such as reading comprehension), a second group had a 10-minute discussion, and the third, in isolation, watched 10 minutes of "Seinfeld." I know, most of you believe there is nothing more stimulating than reruns of “Sienfeld,” but on follow-up cognitive tests, the social interaction and intellectual exercise groups did better than "Seinfeld" viewers. And everyone was surprised to discover the chit-chatters did just as well as the intellectual group. This is such good news to me. "There's a widespread belief in this culture that the way to maintain your sharpness is to do technical and intellectual activities," Ybarra says. But this study suggests an alternative to Sudoku or crosswords could be simply attending a fun and effective women's networking event like The Heart Link Network™, having an amazing evening of connection, talking and sharing with one another and poof, a better memory to boot. It certainly doesn't get better than that.
_________________________________________________________________________________________ Dawn Billings author of over 20 books, selected by Oprah Magazine and The White House Project as one of the nation's 80 emerging women leaders in 2008. CEO & Founder of The Heart Link Women's Network, an International women's networking organization, and the OverJOYed Life. Dawn is the author and architect of the Primary Colors Personality Insight tools.
#compassion #DawnBillings #empathy #Happiness #livejoyfully #Livejoyfully #liveyourdreams #Overjoyed #overjoyedlife #womennetworking #Success #selfconfidence
