Why do the best ideas come to mind in the shower?

The results of recent studies explain to us why the shower can be an ideal place for relaxation and inspiration.

It is known that the shower is not only a place where microbes die, but also where the most unusual ideas are visited by a person. Why is it that a light contrast shower encourages this kind of free thinking? Can something be connected with water? Or is it just something that switches in the brain? Let's find out why this happens.

Monotonous work interferes with creative thinking

We know that if you ignore monotonous work and switch to something else, you can visit a wide variety of thoughts. Of course, intensive, continuous focus is very important for solving critical tasks, such as filing a tax return or passing a test with multiple options. But if you focus your attention too long on one thing, it prevents your brain from analyzing and perceiving obvious things.

How does the brain work during the shower?

Sometimes even a little distraction can involve enough of your cognitive resources to make the imagination wider and more diverse. Shower is a perfect example of this in action. You are probably so used to washing that you do not even think about how to perform certain physical tasks that you do every day. While one part of your brain is focused on washing certain parts of the body, the other part is free, it can generate unusual ideas, consider those options that in any other case you would be ignored. Washing hair and soaping the body does not require significant cognitive focusing, and at this time other parts of the brain begin to work, so to speak, in a free mode.

The same principle explains why working in a coffee shop can make you more productive or why running is a great way to analyze your problems. When part of your brain is focused on external stimuli (the ring of coffee mugs around you, the pressure of your feet on the sidewalk), the rest of the mind "shakes" to consider a wider range of ideas and possibilities.

When is it better to take a shower?

This leads us to another incredibly useful advantage of thinking in the soul: most likely, you are used to doing it in the early morning or late evening, when the brain is not heavily congested and open to creative thought. The results of numerous studies show that thinking at such moments usually leads to creative insight. If the first thing you do in the morning, so it's going to be half asleep in the shower, then your brain is probably still working on the least self-critical, but at the most creative level. The same thing happens if you take a shower just before bedtime, when your brain slowly changes to sleep. In other words, you are more creative when you get tired when one part of the brain is focused on something.

Shower - a way to bring thoughts into order

So, the person is sleepy, diffused, the head is full of different thoughts. Perhaps this is all the consequences of a tedious workshop? Maybe, but you understand that you are still missing something, some thought requires liberation. All parts of the puzzle will fall into place as soon as you take a shower, because it provides relaxation and loneliness.

For many of us, taking a shower is the only longest period of time when you can be alone with yourself. In this isolation, we are much more comfortable with our own thoughts than we would expect in a meeting room or classroom. When we are alone, we are so comfortable that we become under the warm streams of water, relax. And if the body relaxes, then the mind too.

The next time you take a shower, try to find the right moment. You will relax and enjoy the pleasant moments of relaxation.