Use all five senses to observe the world around you. Notice how the air smells after the rain. Feel the hairs on your arm stand up when you are frightened. Think about the food you eat so that you can describe it to someone. Listen to the sound of your coffee gurgling in the morning.

A few words sketched on paper will help you remember it later. Don't rely on your memory. You will learn how to become more aware of the world around you with the help of this notebook.

Write down your observations. Note color, and movement. Use our eyes, but don't forget your other senses. Think about how things sound, feel, taste, smell. Here are some exercises to do to sharpen your powers of observation:

Notice the sound different items make when they fall. Experiment with this. Knock over a chair and write down the sound it made. Jiggle a doorknob, tap a pencil on a table. Describe the smell of a baby's hair, bread when it's baking, a classroom.

Write down--from your imagination--what you THINK a pencil dropping on the floor sounds like. Now, drop an actual pencil on the floor. Do it again and write down how it sounds. Touch the bark of a tree or plunge your hand into cold water. Write down what you THINK it feels like first. Then actually do it, and write down your description. The second version is probably more convincing than the first. How do you explain that?

Try capturing a smell or a taste in words - the dog when he's wet, your socks when you take them off at night, clean sheets, a woman's perfume. Can you do it without comparing it to something else? Do you remember what it was like to taste beer for the first time? What does bread taste like, right out of the oven? And chocolate?

Try some of these for fun. And keep your eyes, and all your senses, open!

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