Card #13 – ”Use Your Senses”

Card #13 – ”Use Your Senses” from the Creative Whack Pack

Available on the iOS App Store and as a physical deck of cards

Think of one of your favorite holidays, perhaps your birthday, Christmas, St. Patrick’s Day, or the Fourth of July.

Now think of the various smells, sights , tastes, feelings, and sounds related to this day. Go ahead and take a minute to do it.

Pretty easy, right? A lot of sensory information comes to mind.

Now, do the very same exercise with your concept or issue as the subject. What are the smells, sights, tastes, and feelings and sounds associated with it?

Use all your senses and pay attention to a wide variety of different information.

If you’re visually oriented, focus also on the “sound” or the “smell” of a situation.

If you’re sound oriented, focus as well on the situation’s “fine visual details.”

If you’re analytically oriented, focus on how something feels.

— What other senses can you use?

— Pick one of your senses, say “hearing.” How would your concept appear if you received NO auditory information at all?

— If your concept were a food, what would it taste like?

— If your problem were music, what genre would it be (jazz, classical, rock, etc.)?

Greek philosopher Heraclitus noted: “If all things turned to smoke, the nose would become the discerning organ.”

— What associations do the following spark in your mind that might be useful to your issue:

• The sound of fingernails scratching a blackboard?

• The terrified howl of a man tormented by his inner demons?

• The feeling of a dentist drilling in your teeth?

• The taste of salt in your tea when you thought you had put in sugar?

• The smell of fresh paint?

• The smell of a shirt that has been worn for thirty days in a row?

• The smell of sweet incense?

• The feel of silk in your fingers?

• The smell of mist from a large fountain?

• The smell of fresh-brewed coffee?

• The feeling of a tennis ball hitting the heart of your racket?

• The feeling of the floor rolling beneath you during an earthquake?

• The smell of rotten fish?

• The sound of loud thunder crashing near you?

• The taste of a fresh strawberry?

• The feel of a keyboard?

• The smell of gasoline?

• The feeling of diving into a swimming pool on a hot day?

• The sound of an air raid siren going off?

• The smell of burning leaves?

• The taste and sound of biting into a crunchy apple?

• The feeling of melancholy?

• The sound and feeling of a very large crowd cheering at an athletic event?

• The smell of day-old vomit?

• The smell of an airport restroom that hasn’t been cleaned in twelve hours?

• The feeling of pushing yourself hard in an athletic event?

Scroll to Top