Hi there! I had a couple questions about your awesome Mind Palace guide. (: I was wondering if you thought it would be more or less confusing to use my house as a template. I figured it would be easy to memorize and navigate because I've lived there for 16 years, but at the same time, I'm worried I'll get confused by what's stored in my head versus what's actually IN the house. Also, should I take the same route through the house every time, or just *enter* from the same place? Thanks a ton!
Firstly, thanks for waiting so long for an answer; I've been snowed under by schoolwork. I'll try to be faster in future!
I don’t think it’ll be at all confusing to use your house, but I would recommend starting small with just one room, at least at first, and then you can expand when you feel the need to. As my palace is imaginary I’m honestly unsure about being confused between reality and your palace, but I’m leaning towards you reaching a point where real life won’t effect your palace as once you begin storing things your palace will be abstract from reality anyway. If my palace was my bedroom I’d be able to distinguish that Hugh Grant wasn’t actually sitting at my desk, for example.
I do have little details in my rooms, but it’s almost as if they’re fuzzy until I need them, that way I can make use or rearrange as I see fit. It’s a bit like being long-sighted; I know what else is in there but if I’m not making use of it as a trigger then it doesn’t really matter. I suggest you try this with the little things - say, your bookshelves are filled with books but it doesn't matter which ones. That way, if you decide you want to make use of the space you can push the books aside and put whatever it is in their place.
As for the route, my apologies for not being clearer. Enter in the same place and take the same route. It’s ok to drop everything from your mind once you find the information you’re searching for, but when you’re reviewing go through each trigger and quickly run through what it reminds you of, taking the same route each time. It’s OK to add new items randomly, but just remember where they are – if you find this hard to do then stick with adding new things at the end of your route, even if this means doubling back on yourself.
I hope that was helpful; if not let me know and I’ll try to find the time to do some diagrams or something in the next fortnight so I can explain better.
