Thinking Creatively? Are You Taking a Shower?

Ever thought of it, why we have creative and much innovative ideas while taking a shower, or on the toilet (you know it!!), or while taking a walk, or while listening to music, or while driving. May be during these activities something stimulates our thoughts. Our creative thinking process is accelerated. But, how is it possible? What is it that controls our thought process? How our actions and surroundings affect it? According to researchers, there is definitely relation between our creative thinking ability and the actions we do.

Wonder why someday while bathing a flash of brilliant thought strikes you. May be it is an answer to a long troublesome problem, or something you were trying to recall badly, or a memory that gives fresh insight to a personal dilemma. But by the time we finish bathing and grab a notebook to not it down, the thought is already 90% lost. This happens with driving and in toilet and while listening to music too. It seems that aimless engagement in an activity is great catalyst for free association which triggers certain revelations. But, then introducing a notebook and pen to note such thoughts break the free association and thoughts begin to fade away.

The DMN – a network of brain regions typically found to be suppressed when individuals focus on their external environment – has been hypothesized to generate spontaneous thoughts during daydreaming and may be crucial for self-referential mental processing, social interactions

Psychology describes this state as Default Mode Network(DMN) when we get random insights. John Kounios, a psychologist who studies creativity and distraction at Drexel University in Philadelphia says “You become less aware of the environment and more aware of your internal thoughts”. A common link in these all activities is that we are mildly engaged, physically and mentally. It had to last long enough so that uninterrupted stream of thoughts appear, as well as, we remain comfortable and familiar so as to not get bored too. Our brain catalogs things by their context, like bricks are part of wall or stars are a part of sky and so ideas mingle. But when we are focused on a task our thinking becomes linear (that is think in one direction only).

Example of such eureka moments can be a common thing we come across everyday like a pile of bricks. It is just a pile of brick for us until one day while taking a shower we realize that we can use the bricks to crack the nuts growing in our neighbor’s backyard. This illustrates how the Default Node Network frees our mind from external association and they are fee to bump against other ideas the never had a chance to encounter.

Such flash epiphanies sometime solve difficult problems.

When we work on a problem our brain tends to focus on few different strategies like we get stuck into a rut in our mental wheel.  But when we tend to take a break, these thought patters (imbibed) don’t dominate our thinking. The problem gets removed from ruts and mingles with other ideas in our head, which click together and rise up. This is called Fixation Forgetting. Shower thoughts are not attached to a particular problem but Fixation Forgetting helps psychologists to understand random signals of revelations. Although it is not clear how brain decides which are right connections, but farther the brain roams the better.

Fixation forgetting is a form of retrieval induced forgetting, which has been researched and proved. Retrieving information from memory causes the forgetting of other information in memory, a phenomenon known as retrieval-induced forgetting. Retrieval-induced forgetting is believed to be caused by inhibitory processes that act to resolve competition. In this case, retrieval can cause forgetting of related or competing items in memory. This also happens while creative problem solving. For e.g., if we are asked to give one common word related to 3 cue words like manners, tennis and round (answer- table). It caused forgetting of other strong associate related to these 3 words. As a result, we come up with more creative thinking as we break apart from fixation.

Many problems are difficult to solve because old and inappropriate ideas cause mental fixation, impeding the generation of new and appropriate ideas (Smith, 2003). Here, inhibition facilitated creative problem solving by helping us bypass the fixation.

Researches’ have shown that the bigger creative webs form when we are in positive mood. This may be because when we are anxious we take less chance on creativity. Even while resting our conscious mind tends to think linearly. That is right hemisphere of brain becomes active when mind is relaxed. Then we are able to hear the quiet voices at the back of our heads that gives us important insights. These were always there, but we fail to listen to them due to logical thinking patters. This also explains the fading away of such thoughts as we start noting them down. Because conscious comes in. So where do such thoughts start?

“Not having an explicit task is the main ingredient for random insights,” Kounios said. “Once you have a pen and paper there, it’s not really your mind wandering.

Even if we don’t distract towards taking a pen and paper but just forcefully try to get into eureka moment, it won’t come. Kounios says if you acclimatize yourself to your recording method, and keep it out of sight (yet within reach), your mind won’t be waylaid by external pressure on its way to free association (such a water proof notebook or voice activated app for car).

Scientifically, another main ingredient for igniting creative thinking is a chemical called Dopamine. The more dopamine is released by brain, more creative we are. Dopamine flow is increased by triggering activities like taking a shower, exercising, listening to music and relaxing. Also, surprisingly, drinking and sleeping also are great for creativity as our mind is more relaxed. I now understand why my first thoughts after I wake up are so intuitively accurate and logical. Moreover, distraction (from problem at hand) also activates our subconscious mind and we can think creatively.

How to trigger our mind to solve problems and think creatively:

1.      Try to increase activities that trigger dopamine release.

2.      As well as practice distraction many times a day. When you are not concentrating on any issue or         task.

3.      Try to keep noting device handy and note down such creative thoughts as and when they appear.

4.      Overwhelm your brain. This is a proven and researched technique. Take up tasks that are too 

       hard for you to handle and keep working on it. Your brain will be put in a shock situation and 

       naturally engage more of your creative area then it normally would. And problem solved!

5.    Remember creative activities happen in multiple areas of our brain and not only on right or left

       side. 

Happy Creative Thinking!!