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Build Your "Creativity Muscle" with Word Associations!

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Word associations is what I consider to be the first creativity building exercise. It's actually a simple improv comedy drill.

You can do a word association with a partner. First you say a word, and then your partner says the first word that comes to his mind, then you say the first word, then he says the first word, then you say the first word, and so on and so on.

However you can also do this on your own and play this game by yourself. Just say a word, then say the first word that comes to your mind, then say the next word that comes to your mind, then say the next word, and so on and so on. It sounds simple, but it gets complicated.

What you'll find when you do this is the first four or five words will come very easy because as soon as you say one word your mind instantly comes up with the next four or five.

Once you get beyond that is when you are tapping into your creativity. You have to open your mouth and talk and see what comes out.

You'll know you're using your subconscious if you go fast and it's word after word after word. If you do this and you pause, or hesitate, or stutter a little bit or stammer, then what you are doing is thinking about things in your conscious mind.

You want to get to a point where you can go for 30 seconds, or a minute, or just keep going without ever having that hesitation, because then you're really bypassing the conscious mind and tapping into your creativity.

This is just a muscle building exercise. It builds the creativity muscle. You're not going to use this exercise to solve all of your problems. Just saying one word is not really going to give you a whole lot in terms of results, but when you apply this mentality, when you build this muscle then apply it to say, generating ideas, you get some very interesting things that come up very quickly.


Avish Parashar is a dynamic professional speaker who shows organizations and individuals how to get what they want using the Art and Science of improv comedy. He weaves together humorous stories, witty observations, and interactive exercises from improvisational comedy to get people laughing, learning, and motivated! Avish is most commonly called upon to deliver programs on Motivation, Sales, and Communication

For more free articles, downloads, and resources, visit http://www.AvishParashar.com

To learn how to apply the powerful principles of improv comedy to your own business or life visit http://www.ImprovforEveryone.com

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