Auditory and Tactile Imagery helps a lot to increase mental fitness and memory.
Auditory Imagery
Play in your mind’s ear the following pieces of music. Hear the melody, the orchestra, and words, if any.
Classical Music
Rock Music
Pop Music
Sound Tracks
Inner Sounds
Form an image of each of the following sounds:
five sounds heard in nature (rain, wind, waterfall)
five sounds heard in a car (door closing, moving seat, starting ignition)
five animal sounds (dog barking, elephant trumpeting)
five insect sounds (housefly, mosquito, cricket chirping)
five mechanical sounds (air conditioner, turbine)
five human sounds (singing, sniffling, hiccupping, coughing)
Abstract Sounds
Can you mentally hear what the following might sound like:
Bright sounds, clear sounds, muffled sounds, horrible sounds, joyful sounds, golden sounds, smooth sounds, bittersweet sounds, harsh sounds, hollow sounds, sharp sounds, wide sounds.
Mental Recounting
Snap your fingers and listen very closely to the sound. After a moment, recreate the sound in your mind. Do this several times so you can hear the snap at will. Then change the quality of that sound by mentally altering the location of the sound. Make the sound come from above you, from the left, behind you. Imagine the sound louder, then softer. Imagine it in a small room, like a closet, and in a large room, like a gymnasium. Do the same for other sounds, like voices.
Tactile Imagery
Inner Sensations
Relax in your favorite armchair, and visualize yourself washing your hands. Go through every motion, every nuance of movement, every mannerism. Feel the sounds, hear the running water, smell the soap, see the little bubbles. Now wash your hands and compare the experience to your visualization.
More Inner Sensations
In the same detail as above, visualize taking a shower, getting dressed, making a bed, walking into work in the morning, having a conversation with your best friend, riding the bus and metro, doing your weekly shopping, making dinner, washing dishes, getting into bed.
Getting a Sense
Visualize the sensations associated with the following activities: five sports (tennis, baseball) five musical activities (putting on a record, playing guitar) five activities at home (making breakfast, making a bed) five business activities (reading a memo, sitting at a board meeting) five kitchen activities (washing a cake pan, peeling potatoes)
Getting a Feel
Visualize the texture of the following objects:
five different kinds of cloth (polyester, silk, cotton)
five building materials (concrete, wood, tile)
five plants (oak tree, rose petals, azadiracta)
five objects in a car (steering wheel, upholstery, tape deck)
Taste
Form a clear feeling of taste of the following foods
five meats (pork, chicken)
five vegetables (potatoes, brinjal, pea)
five fruits (banana, orange, kiwi)
five cheeses (emendable, cheddar, grayer)
five of your favorite meals (sprouted pulse, salad)
Try visualizing the tastes without seeing a mental picture of the food.
Multi-tastes
Form the sensation of each of the basic tastes that your palate is sensitive to: sweet, sour, bitter, salty. Combine these qualities together. What would sweet and sour taste like together? Bitter and salt? Sweet, Sour and bitter?
Imagine the tastes of the following foods mixed together
pickles and ice cream chapati and boiled potatoes
cream cheese on white bread lettuce and Captain Crunch
cereal
rice pudding with apples milk mixed with orange
juice
Smell
Form an image of the smells of the following things
five meats (pork, veal, chicken)
five vegetables (potatoes, brussels, sprouts)
five fruits (banana, orange, mango)
five cheeses (emmenthal, cheddar, grayer)
five of your favourite meals (pulse, curd)
five flowers (rose, gardenia, dandelion)
five smells associated with engines (gasoline, oil)
five smells associated with various environments (ocean, pineforest)
five smells associated with different weather (humidity, rain)
Try visualizing the smells without seeing a mental picture of the object.
Mental Music
If your mind is a musical instrument, then words—those you think silently and speak aloud—are musical notes that harmonize into melodies and symphonies of thought.
In our heads, in our speech, and in our writing, words give shape and substance to our thoughts. Without words our thinking would lose its richness and intricacy. We would have no way to formulate and express meanings. Improving your ability to command words involves developing an inner voice. What characterizes a well-trained voice is not so much a powerful vocabulary, but, the ability to articulate. The abilities to express words clearly, to infuse them with accents of meaning, and to put feelings into words are signs of a sharpened mind. Keep your inner voice trained and limber by paying attention to how you shape your words and your mind will make beautiful music.
Play the phrase in your mind at different volumes
Sound the words louder. Make them as loud as a symphony, or a Boeing 747. Now, turn the volume knob in the other direction and repeat the phrase more quietly. Play the thought so quietly that you can barely hear it above the background noise in your mind.
Sound the words and focus intently on their meaning
Pay attention to the significance of the words. Connect the words together, and try to understand the gist of the idea. Repeat the thought, emphasizing only one word in the phrase at a time. For example, sound the phrase as “I think, therefore I am.” Do this for each word.
Sound the word in different voices
Form the words in your mind as if someone else were speaking them. Try Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan or your father. Try sounding them as if they were spoken by someone you respect, then someone you don’t respect, someone you like and someone you don’t like.
Sound the thought in different locations
Place the thought in the middle of your brain. On your forehead. In the back of your head. In your chest, at your feet, to your left, two feet in front of you, at the far side of the room. in the air all around you.
Picture the words in your mind without healing them
Visualize the phrase as if it were written on a blackboard. Try focusing on the content of the thought, without hearing or seeing the words.
Sound the thought without trying to act upon it
Imagine the thought is floating as a puff of smoke in still air. Don’t manipulate it, just let it float.
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