Why Is it That Our Best Thoughts Always Come in the Shower?
You cannot deny it; the best ideas you’ve ever had have occurred while taking a shower. But why is everyone more creative while doing this simple everyday activity?
Here’s the thing about working on anything creative; the inspiration needed to produce amazing things only comes in waves. There are times where I feel full of great thoughts or ideas, but there are also days where not an ounce of creativity and inspiration flow through my body. But when a good idea does come, it always seems as if they occur in the same place, the shower.
When it comes to having any sort of revealing thoughts, whether that is the perfect answer to a fight you had in the past, a new ground-breaking theory, or a new creative idea, the shower always seems to be the ideal place to come up with innovative thoughts. But why?
According to John Kounios, a psychologist from Drexel University, it is because we are “more aware of our internal thoughts rather than our environment¹,” which explains why the shower is not the only place where most of our brilliant ideas show up. If we think about it, innovative thoughts also occur while taking a walk or just before we fall asleep. The less we think about our surroundings, the more prone we are at coming up with new extraordinary ideas.
Kounios also explains that timing is crucial when doing these types of activities². They tend to last just long enough, which gives us the perfect amount of time to concentrate on a linear thought before we get distracted with something else.
While our constant attention to a simple task allows us to have an interrupted set of ideas, neuroscientist Alice Flaherty³ believes that our brain composition also plays a role when it comes to our mind-blowing shower thoughts. She believes that our increased levels of dopamine while we do activities such as exercising or taking a hot shower, make us more susceptible to creative thinking.
Our obsession with productivity and the new “hustle” culture we have created also contribute to our lack of innovation. According to psychologist Ron Friedman, our intense schedules do not allow us to set time aside to be with our thoughts. “It’s a very American thing; we want to be the best, and we want to be hardworking,” he says⁴. Meaning that our urge to make ourselves efficient and productive might be helping our wallets, but not necessarily our ingenuity.
Practical, creative thinking occurs whenever we feel comfortable with ourselves and our inner thoughts, which explains why our best ideas come when we are enjoying a morning run, a calm bus ride, or a warm shower. Unfortunately, we tend not to have a pen or paper while doing these creative inducing activities. Therefore, it is essential to set time aside to be with ourselves, to let our thoughts flow freely.
The quick pace to which we live our every day routines is only blocking new and creative ideas. Our obsession with productivity and our lack of self-control over our distracting devices make our mind run wild in the few minutes it is not being used to work, study, or even look at our Instagram feed. So next time you take a shower and a great idea pops up in your head, make sure to write it down, as that time you use to wash your body is also sacred when it comes to expanding your mind.
¹ ² Stockton, Nick. “What’s Up With That: Your Best Thinking Seems to Happen in the Shower.” Wired, 5 Aug. 2014, www.wired.com/2014/08/shower-thoughts
³ Widrich, Leo. “Why We Have Our Best Ideas in the Shower: The Science of Creativity.” Buffer, 5 Aug. 201, open.buffer.com/shower-thoughts-science-of-creativity/.
⁴ Smith, Jacquelin. “72% of people get their best ideas in the shower — here’s why.” Business Insider, 14 Jan. 2016, www.businessinsider.com/why-people-get-their-best-ideas-in-the-shower-2016-1.
