From Drains to Brains: Confessions of a Shower Wanker
Do you find ideas drop in for you in the shower?
Your thoughts explode with colour and you leave with a sense of drive and purpose.
But maybe you waste the genius?
It disappears down the drain…
I’ve got an idea to take the genius with you — to unlock shower power!
I live on the sunny Gold Coast in Australia and we don’t have much of a winter, so hot showers aren’t a necessity.
I see them more as:
1) A time to connect with my partner. Unless I ruin the mood with a duck fart.
2) An opportunity to find flow and solve problems in my head.
Growing up, hot showers were where I’d practice beating the shit out of the school bully or coming to Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s rescue — whisking her away to safety…
Only to find I had no idea what to do with girls.
It’s debatable whether this is still the case.
It was a teleportary* experience for sure.
But now it’s more than that….
A warm shower can be the catalyst for an expansive mode of enlightenment.
But let’s not be a wanker now
I stopped doing that in there a long time ago…
What? We’ve all done it!
Back to the script, where was I?
It can be a liminal space to connect the dots.
To Daydream.
It is said that the art of daydreaming can relax our prefrontal cortex, which drives our behaviours, decisions, goals etc.
With the noise from this bad boy put on ice by the embrace of the warm shower, it is no longer that inner-critic prick that makes you question your thoughts.
If you’re familiar with the flow cycle it’s the release phase of the process which can potentially drop you into flow and finding the magic. AKA Answers
If you want to learn more about the flow cycle, I’ll be dropping an article on the garden coming soon, so be sure to subscribe to the channel.
Now all that’s left to understand the intention for the shower…
If the purpose is to clean yourself…
“Get in, get out, stop fucking about, ya know, ya know, ya know.” (Appropriated misappropriate song from my youth)
If it’s to solve a problem…
Well here’s those 7 steps:
- Establish a problem — write it down in a notepad so it’s stickier
- Set the timer so you don’t waste water (Please align to current local water restrictions)
- Get the washing part done
- Close your eyes and take a deep breath in
- Release it slowly, rinse & repeat while giving yourself permission to dream
- If the answer drops in, turn the tap off.
- Write it down in the notepad or record some audio into your phone
Give it a go and let us know if it worked benny@101tokens.com
Well isn’t that swell.
You may have found flow, dealt with a troublesome client, or unblocked writer’s block for that romantic novel about saving Vampire Slayer babes.
You may have just unlocked the mystical power of your shower.
And if it didn’t work…
Don’t race the clock to the finish line in the name of a nostalgic return to your youthful malevolence.
Tomorrow is another day.
And at least you might have saved some water with your new found habit for timing your showers. ;)
And here’s a bonus for taking the process to the next level.
A riff from one of my favourite musicians about how he uses all types of water including showers to find the magical promised land of creativity and problem solving.
Much love,
Benny
P.S If you liked this jam, clap the fuck out of it.
*P.S.S I made up the word Teleportary — what do you think if it?
P.S.S If you’d like to learn more about what I do in and out of the shower visit bennywallington.com
