You might remember the meaning of the character 荡 with this easy mnemonic:
Every time the wind blows, it moves the flowers (艹) and sends droplets (氵) of water bouncing off the petals and reflects sun (日) light into my house. If only I could have one (一) giant flower petal that I can wrap (勹) myself with! I would slash (丿) anyone who dares to take it away from me.
Using mnemonics to remember the meaning of Chinese characters like has a huge impact on how long to learn Mandarin it takes.