5 Tips For 5 Senses

Don't wait for that perfect moment...artistic imagery can be motivated.

The feeling of being stymied will cause a stalemate in your creativity between the need to be inspired to produce and the inventiveness of the imagination. Don’t fret…whatever your mode of artistic expression your creativity can be rejuvenated.

At times you’ll get stuck, too much focus, and obsessing over an idea ensures the energy just doesn’t flow. It doesn’t even perform in a swirl, taking your mind in other directions or nudging it into something that can be molded into a tangible concept. Stay inspired!

Give your senses some enticement or is it excitement?

1. Sight:

The world is a visually abundant and complex scene with hundreds of thousands of transitioning images, alternating through light spectrums, adjusting the perception of what is seen. You can enjoy this spectacle through the artists’ filter and stimulate your creativity. When was the last time you just took a look?

• Take random photos from many different angles and vantage points.

• Take small binoculars with you everywhere and use them randomly to view your world.

• Take a walk watching the light enhance mundane landmarks at the park or on your street... flowerbeds, mailboxes, roofing shingles, or even trash and recycle bins.

• Take a closer look by using a magnifying glass. Examine colors, shapes, and dimensions within the area of magnification. Have you ever noticed all the different shades of green in a blade of grass?

• Play the game Eye Spy!

2. Smell:

You can train your nose to notice the smells in your environment and your brain will activate images of what those smells mean to you, motivating the emotional desire to create. Scent impacts on a primal level through the limbic system which directs physical responses from smells prompting behavior, emotion, and memory.

• Take a deep breath. Exhale and then slowly inhale deeply, recognizing the different smells you detect. When you walk in the door from a long day and smell the aromas of your home. Or at a department store, the grocery store, and the parking lot...stinky smells are fun too!

• Take a few seconds to smell your food and drinks. Enjoy their hints of Thyme or Vanilla. Can you identify the ingredients? Can you detect the difference between homemade, grocery deli, and restaurant?

• Take a trip to the botanical garden. Smell flowers. Many flowers have a sweet bouquet with bitter undertones. Many flowers have an earthen fragrance.

• Take perfume and cologne samples from every fragrance counter and demonstrator. Try to find a new self-essence or decide you still like your favorite eau de toilette.

• Take it slow with envelopes. Try to smell the air inside your mail. A letter mailed from Galicia, Spain will have different aromas than one mailed from Columbus, Ohio.

3. Sound:

There is a barrage of noise that will confront each of us every day. It is a human survival mechanism to filter out the most aggressive of these noises…early morning trash retrieval trucks, a neighbor’s barking dog, or said neighbor’s annoyingly loud vocal patterns hanging in the air at one o’clock in the morning. Sound has an awe-inspiring relationship with the soul of an artist. It instigates. It irritates. It soothes. It motivates. When was the last time you just took a listen?

• Take a moment to listen to the music of a specific instrument...have you heard the Bodhran?

• Take in a performance of cultural/ethnic music…your own and not your own heritage.

• Take advantage of a conversation happening near you…eavesdrop. What language is it?

• Take notice of the sounds of your daily environment.

• Take time to appreciate and understand the absence of volume…enjoy the sound of silence.

4. Taste:

It is a given that stepping out of your comfort zone stimulates perceptions and perspective. The sensations from the palate will incite the sense of taste much like the impressions of odors cause responses from the sense of smell.

The virtues of the Culinary Arts have been a distinct facet of the Creative Arts throughout documented history. Relishing the foods you eat can be amazing in the way it coaxes inventiveness, temperature, and texture perfectly melding essences of bitter, salty, savory, sour, and sweet.

• Take a trip to a local vineyard, a baking class, or learn to use spices in everyday cooking. Try each spice in your rack, individually. Does it taste like its color or its smell? Try joining an enthusiast’s foodie group…BBQ or Vegan? There are many 'Online Platforms dedicated to the art of eating! Sharing the experience with others inspires ingenuity.

• Take it slow…practice mindful eating and identifying your response to the flavorings. Enjoy the taste, letting your saliva flood your mouth, savoring the bite. Can you notice the connection between taste/smell; pinch your nose as you eat.

• Take out your tongue or rather, stick it out and taste the air. Try tasting the air of a just-opened box of chocolate, your refrigerator, or your clothes dryer... the crisp morning air of that nature walk!

• For the bold…lick a rock!

5. Touch:

It is assumed that taste can be the most decadent sense, but touch is certainly the most luxuriant. The network of nerve endings and sensation receptors of the skin, the somatosensory system, known as touch, deciphers sensory details for the brain. Giving some quality time to your feelings about the way in which you feel texture can inspire spontaneous creativity.

• Take some browsing time in a fabric store. This is an occasion to experience the textures of a multitude of cloth, stimulating your artistry through non-visual sensory perception. The silk bundles provide an especially opulent impression.

• Take an afternoon at the spa. Try a scalp massage, noticing the tingle and the wave of relaxation. Try a paraffin hand dip!

• Take a few drops of oil and roll it around on your fingertips; baby oil, car oil, olive oil, safflower oil, or even butter, all are different consistencies, which become interesting to the finger movements.

• Take a chance on petting a farm animal; horsehair, chicken feathers, and kitten fur are variations of the sensation of plush.

• For the bold…squish pudding through your toes!

The 5 senses collaborate, effortlessly indicating our perceptions, but they can get bored and block creativity. A little enticement can motivate your creativity via a little excitement!