The techniques that help us accurately lock down useful types of information can override the stories we tell about ourselves, leading to incorruptible recall of simple things that set you free—on demand. Some of the best is both ancient and new every time you use it, but always the same.

This book differs from other memory books because I’ve come to believe memory training and meditation go hand in hand. By taking up a memory training practice, you may well receive many of the same benefits meditation can bring. My discussion differs from many meditation books, as well, because it offers instruction and personal stories that contextualize the techniques.

No matter what term you use for the technique, relief from mental distress is made possible because this mental tool helps us remember and rapidly access positive affirmations and memories quickly and accurately, even during times of distress. These higher quality memories can help dissolve negative ones, both immediately and for the long term.

I also often refer to the “Magnetic Memory Method”, which is the systematic, 21st-century approach I developed to memorizing foreign language vocabulary, dreams, names, music, poetry and much more, in ways that are easy, elegant, effective and fun.

Become the Storm,” refers to Sam Harris’s point that you are not influenced by the storms of external circumstances so much as “you are the storm.” I take this further by arguing that you need to do more than recognize the wisdom of Harris’ insight—you need to “become the storm.” Becoming the storm and staging the dual games of memory and mindfulness practice will help you remain in a watchful state of becoming.

Although I did not call my home office the “Virtuous Scheme Laboratory” back then, I’ve used the term often over the years after hearing a guy I sometimes think of as the “Buddha of Business” named Dean Jackson use a similar phrase. Certainly, what I was doing in that office was “scheming” with the stubborn tenacity of Wile E. Coyote to find a way out of hell without sacrificing my intelligence or believing in some vapid god that couldn’t possibly exist.