Shower Power

Excuse the cheesy rhyme, but I could not resist. I have often said the places where I have the best ideas and the most meaningful thoughts are in my car on a long distance drive, and in the shower. It is as though you are encapsulated in these somewhat small spaces, and you become vacuum sealed allowing all of your greatness to ooze from your pores. It is a complaint I have often had because I struggle to recall the details of my thoughts long enough to get my pen in hand. 

This morning in the shower, I started to formulate some organized thoughts about a piece I have been conceptualizing for several weeks and have yet to move past brief jottings. As I was shampooing my hair it was as though I was massaging the thoughts right out of my brain. And I panicked. I had just started my shower, and washing my hair is the first thing I do following the initial warm water rinse. How in the world was I going to remember all of these ideas through the conditioning rinse, the body wash, face scrub, and a leg and pits shave? And like a computer my mind started to create a graphic organizer. It was a desperate attempt to create an image and take a mental snapshot, so I could hold onto the brainstorm until I could get my hands on my journal.

By the time I was exfoliating my face, I got distracted and started to wonder why this always happens. Why, during the two most difficult times to take pen in hand and jot your thoughts, do the ideas start to flow? And just like that my brain was on another tangent. This one. And I think I may have figured it out. Driving down a monotonous highway with the hum of the tires along the road, and no distracting chatter because I have no passengers, allows my mind to be cognitively clear and relaxed. The driving part is automatic, and therefore my mind is free to think about whatever it wants. 

The same could be said for a shower, with the added benefit of physiological relaxation. You step into the chamber and hot water washes down over you relaxing your muscles, clearing your sinuses (which for me is no easy feat), and cleaning away the muck. My routine, and I suppose many others would concur about their own shower routines, is pretty automatic. I follow the same procedure everyday, in the same order. I do not really have to think about it, and it is solitary. So there is the soothing sound of running water, my body is relaxed, my cognitive launching pad is clear, and I start to think.

It can be frustrating at times, but if I can manage to finish my shower, get dried off quickly, and get my hands on a pen and my journal, it is all good. Today was one of those days. I grabbed a towel, jumped out dripping wet, and ran to retrieve my journal from the dining room table. I placed it on the counter in the bathroom, and as I dried off, combed my hair, and completed my post-shower routine, I happily stopped to take notes in between each task. I was able to salvage most of my treasurly thoughts for the post I origianlly began thinking about, and a few that helped me write this post too.

I have often thought about keeping a recorder just outside the shower to catch fleeting brilliance in an emergency. My solution in the car is to voice-to-text myself so I can revisit the thought later. But recently my son suggested he would like to buy me one of these:

I think he may be on to something. Aqua notes would never allow my shower power to go to waste.