Think about this for a moment. As you sit there right now reading this article, information is coming in through your eyes. But you are also hearing sounds, feeling physical feelings like the pressure of the chair against your butt and back, the feeling of the clothing on your body, and the air temperature and movement on your skin. You are also receiving information through your nose in the form of smells. And of course, you're receiving information in the form of the various tastes in your mouth.

And what about the emotional feelings that you are presently experiencing? That's also information that you're currently processing. We live in an information intensive world. Thanks to the Internet, almost everything that a person could ever want to know is only a few mouse clicks away.

I recently read an article that said that even in a calm and peaceful environment, we are bombarded by sixty thousand stimuli per second. And that's happening sixty seconds out of every minute, and sixty minutes out of every hour. And it goes on twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, week in and week out for our entire life.

And that's a big part of the problem. We are all suffering from "information overload." And that makes it very difficult to remember all of the information that we want to remember or need to remember.

All too often, when we are reading, we find that our eyes have been traversing the sentences on the page, while our conscious mind has been off somewhere else on a tangent. When we get to the bottom of the page, we realize that our eyes have seen the words, but we have no conscious recollection of what we've just read. That's because our mind has been somewhere else worrying about a problem, or working out a project.

Today it's common to hear even young people say things like, "I'm having a senior moment." Regardless of your age, and whether you are a student, part of the work force, or a retired person, you know what I'm talking about. In our hectic world it is often very difficult to focus your concentration.

So which of the following scenarios is your problem?

A. Your mind starts to wander as you read or study, and then all of a sudden you realize that you have no idea what you've read.

B. When you are in a social situation and new acquaintances are introduced to you, you forget their names as quickly as you hear them.

C. You remember that you have a chore to do in another room, but as soon as you start walking in the direction of the other room you totally forget what that chore is.

D. You can stay focused and absorb new information. But when you take a test, "Test Anxiety" rears its ugly head and causes a mental block, and you are unable to recall the answers to the questions on the test that you really know.

The biggest cause of a person's inability to focus their concentration is stress. And the biggest cause of a mental block to recall is also stress. So it stands to reason that the more relaxed a person is, the better they will be able to focus their concentration, absorb information, and then be able to recall it at a later date.

Today, hypnosis and memory enhancement has become a hot topic. That's because Hypnosis is an excellent tool for creating relaxation. As a matter of fact, the very essence of hypnosis is relaxation. And as the mind calms down, the ability to stay focused increases. Similarly, a calm mind enhances the ability to retain information, and recall it when it is needed.

Self-hypnosis memory improvement is a wonderful modality for eliminating test anxiety. There are several hypnotic techniques that can be used to program a student with the positive expectancy for relaxation, confidence, and success while taking exams.

Students can take a course in home hypnosis self study easily and inexpensively by purchasing hypnosis CD's. You can find additional information on hypnosis to improve memory and recall in the Hypnosis Research Library.

Alan B. Densky, CH has specialized in the practice of hypnotherapy and Neuro-Linguistic Programming since 1978. He offers self-hypnosis CD's for memory and recall enhancement. Visit his Neuro-VISION Self-Hypnosis site for free hypnosis newsletters, articles, MP3 downloads and Self-Hypnosis Videos.