There’s a subtle lesson as to why our best thinking arrives in the shower. It’s a multiple of effects all happening at once.

The first is that you’re not intending to think about anything in particular. This “release” from our problem-solving mind seems to allow to actually… solve problems for you. But done in a holistic manner that skips the direct logic of pouring energy through the known problem space.

The second is the heat. You’re relaxed. You’re no longer in the rush or the stress of the day and that gives your system a chance to calm down. Strangely, the calm also works well for solving big problems in simple, effective ways. Stress as a stimulus may give your work more distance, but perhaps not more depth.

Third, is the sound. There’s a white-noise effect, a hum of the water pressure and splash of the droplets. Attuning to this sound, you center yourself unconsciously into a type of meditative state. This meditative state anchors to sound, the consistency of it allows you to drop into a more open state giving you some separation from your thoughts.

That your environment matters for your consciousness and your experience of being.

And – that turning away from something is also a useful method for working through something.