Why People Have Their Best Ideas In The Shower

Everyone has heard the phrase, "I have my best Ideas in the shower!"

Some people have also felt this working!

Suddenly - Eureka!

The answer seems so clear!

But, is there something to this?

Well, it turns out that there is!

When you study Psychophysiology closely, you will find that several factors work together which allow us to have our best Ideas in the Shower!

Showers themselves aren't "Inherently" magical, but in a way, the number of Benefits that occur at the same time can make them "Feel" magical!

To understand what is actually happening, you first need to understand Stress.

At this point in history, 80% of people are in Burnout.

There are many more who are not far away from it.

Now, "Burnout" is just a fancy buzzword for Extreme Dis-Stress.

However, "Stress" is not inherently bad!

Dis-Stress is, of course, bad.

However, there is also Eu-Stress, or "Good Stress".

All of our best work, and best Ideas, happen when we are in Eu-Stress (this is also where we find Flow States).

With this understanding, we can start to understand what is happening in a Shower.

Different Psychophysiological Factors happen that allow us to lower our Stress Levels into the Eu-Stress Zone.

So what are these Factors?

The first is that Showers tend to be one of the few moments in our lives when we STOP Thinking about all of our problems!

This means that we often use Showers as a form of Recovery.

This Recovery allows us to do something rare in today's world - Relax!

That Relaxation will drop our levels of Stress and move toward the Eu-Stress Zone.

But there is a LOT more!

If we think about a Shower, it is one of the few times we are COMPLETELY exposed - as naked as one can be!

But when we are in the shower, alone, we aren't "thinking" about how we are naked, or exposed, or anything like that!

We're just doing something that every person needs to do, clean themselves.

In Psychology, we would call that "Dropping our Self-Consciousness".

We are not thinking about our looks, or how others might perceive us, or what our hair looks like, or how many "likes" our Instagram Selfie got, or anything else like that.

See, the more Self-Conscious we are, the more Stress we accumulate.

By Dropping our Self-Consciousness while in the Shower, we are reducing the Mental Load that most people carry continuously in today's world!

But we can keep going!

As the air warms up, this thing called "Steam" rises.

If you breathe Steam too quickly, you will feel like you are drowning.

However, our body Unconsciously understands this, and so in the presence of Steam our Breathing will slow down.

There are multiple benefits to this.

The act of Slower Breathing is a direct way to calm ourselves down.

This is another way to say that we are lowering Stress Levels.

With this, our HRV will also Increase.

There is a lot of Research around HRV that shows that Improved HRV is a factor in Improved and Clearer Thinking!

Now, let's look at the Water itself!

The first aspect is that the Water is typically Warm or Hot.

(There are "different" Benefits to Cold Showers, but the "Shock" of a Cold Shower is not Conducive to lowering Dis-Stress, so not something we will look at here)

When the Warm Water hits our body, what happens?

Well, the first is that the Warmth itself helps our Muscles Relax.

Often when we are in Dis-Stress our Muscles will tighten up (Or tight Muscles will create Dis-Stress, either way not good).

So, when our Muscles Relax, our body's Stress Load also decreases here!

But the Warmth plays another role for us!

As our Body Temperature increases, our Blood Flow will also Increase.

This means that Blood will Flow to the Brain more easily, which also has been shown to lead to better Thinking!

Then, the Water plays one more fascinating role!

Our bodies have Nerve Endings ALL throughout our body.

These make up our "Nervous System", which has a lot of Neurons acting as a type of "Brain".

When our Nerve Endings are left unused, it actually can cause a LOT of Chronic Stress on us!

In our Sedentary World, which has few REAL challenges for our bodies, it has become a rarity for us to "properly" use our Nervous System throughout our body.

BUT this is untrue in the Shower!

It is one of the few places where we "feel" all these different Nerve Endings.

It acts like a Micro-Massage, Acupuncture, or Tapping.

This ends up putting the Nervous System "Brain" at ease, leading to further Stress Reduction!

There is ONE more major benefit to the Shower that helps us understand why we gain new Ideas and Insights during them.

Where are you Focused during a Shower?

Maybe you Focus on the Heat.

Perhaps it is the Feeling of the Water.

Or you know... the actual Process of Washing Yourself.

But you know what you stop thinking about?

EVERYTHING ELSE!

Now, THAT is not super fascinating UNTIL you understand how Thinking occurs.

See, there are 2 places where Thinking Occurs.

There is the Conscious - what we "recognize" as what we are thinking about.

However, there is also the Unconscious!

Even when we aren't "actively" Thinking about something, our Brains will still Process Information in the Background.

Now, why is this so Important?

Well, the "Processing Power" of the Conscious and Unconscious are completely different.

You can think about the "Conscious" like trying to figure out a problem with a Pen and a Sticky Note.

The more complicated the problem, the more difficult it is to put it ALL on a Sticky Note.

But the Subconscious?

It is like putting your problems through a NASA Supercomputer.

Which one do you think is Faster?

I think "most" of us recognize that the NASA Supercomputer is significantly faster!

Or another way to put it - the Unconscious works WAY faster than the Conscious!

But most people try to keep ALL of their Challenges in their Conscious Brain!

It's like trying to solve 100 things ALL on the same little Sticky Note!

We "rarely" get any good Solutions.

But in a Shower, it's one of the FEW times we ALLOW everything inside our Brains to be pushed to the Unconscious.

THIS then leads directly to MUCH better thinking ALL without us needing to Focus on it!

Then, when you combine this with everything from before, you have a perfect recipe for BRILLIANT Ideas!

So, if you've been avoiding Showers, do us all a favor a PLEASE take one!

You have SO many new reasons to take them now!