Memorization through movement

I’ve just realized again how much I associate learning and memorizing things with movement. For example, I remember number combinations best when I picture a keypad and then mentally trace the movements I make with my fingers. The sense of direction, the stretching of the finger joints, the positioning of the hand—there’s a rhythm to it. For me, remembering happens through reliving movement. Or when I play piano pieces today that I learned as a teenager. It’s particularly striking here, since there’s such a massive gap. Over the past 20 years, I’ve played the piano hardly at all (I've started playing regularly again over the past few days.) If I think too much about which notes I have to play while I’m trying to play, I start to stumble. But as soon as I stop thinking about what I’m playing and instead just tune into how I’m playing it, I immediately get back into the flow and can continue without mistakes. I feel like there’s a certain threshold where logic and reason have to give…