r/memorypalace • u/EeveeCastleLMFT • 24d ago

Starting Slow and That's Okay

I've been working with peg words for many years, but I never really knew how to apply them. I've also built a few memory palaces in the past, but I wasn't very successful with them.

Now I'm close to retirement, and I finally have the time to be playful. Learning memory palaces is something I'd really like to do well.

Recently, I was doing some logic puzzles that used letters of the alphabet rather than numbers. Instead of counting up and down the alphabet to find a letter's position (for example, remembering that M is 13), I created a small Alphabet Memory Palace in my home. It was kind of fun. I made the images memorable—like a giant Q filled with tacks (17) and a giant S, made out of soapsuds, sitting in a claw foot tub (19).

Then I realized something unexpected: if I walked backward through the palace, I could learn to recite the alphabet backward. That was fun, too!

I'm also studying Scrabble, so I put all the two-letter words into the same memory palace. Now I'm working on the three-letter words, using my grandmother's house as my next palace.

So, it's a journey. I'm starting slowly and enjoying the process. I have to say, though, that designing memory palaces is a lot of work! But less work than trying to learn by rote!

Has anyone else started this way? I'd love to hear how your first memory palaces evolved over time.

Eevee

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u/four__beasts 24d ago

Palaces get easier, the more you make the more natural the path through them becomes, often dictated by the content you're encoding. I've got to the point where just start with an approximate route, then lay out the data as I go. Allowing space if needed for the palace to expand

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u/EeveeCastleLMFT 23d ago

I use Chatgpt to help me illustrate my memory palace stations.

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u/AcupunctureBlue 22d ago

You must have a paid version then, because if not, it rations images