Ever found yourself struck with a creative idea while bathing? Well You’re not alone. You’re just one of the millions who has experienced what’s popularly known as a shower thought. Consider your surroundings is warm and comforting. It’s a place of relaxation where you can feel free to let your mind wander and amidst the smells of your favorite shampoos and soap. And suddenly you realize that you've come up with a totally unique way of thinking Research shows you’re more likely to have a creative thought when you’re doing something monotonous, like fishing, exercising, or showering. Since these activities don’t require much thought, you flip to autopilot. This frees up your unconscious to work on something else. This kind of day dreaming relaxes the prefrontal cortex (the brain’s command center for decisions, goals, and behavior). It also switches on the rest of your brain’s “default mode network” (DMN). With your cortex loosened up and your DMN switched on, you can make new, creative ideas.
That’s why the ideas you have in the shower are so different from the ideas you have at work .You are more close-minded at the office. Thinking out of the box and let your thoughts wander boosts your prefrontal cortex’s control. This isn’t a bad thing as it enhances your focus. But it can also dig you into a state of creative thinking.
Strangely, your brain is not most active when you’re focused on a task. Rather, research shows it’s more active when you let it think comfortably and allow it to wander. Shelley Carson at Harvard found that highly creative people share one amazing trait—they’re easily distracted. And that’s the beauty of a warm shower. It distracts you. It makes you defocus. It lets your brain roam. It activates your DMN and encourages creative ideas to bounce around, and so your light bulb switch's on.
