I don't know what it is about the shower. I love showers! They are funny things because you put off bathing, thinking it's this chore, but most mornings, I don't feel quite right until I've had my shower. I am such a creature of habit that any change to my routine will cause me to forget at least one things for the morning. It is like clockwork. Whenever my morning routine changes, it is pretty much a guarantee that I will forget something. And what is the first thing to activate my morning ritual; the SHOWER. What is even crazier is that while in the shower, my brain starts working at a level that is transcending what it is capable of at every other time. Given that I take great pride in my mind, my imagination, my memory, and my ability to retain knowledge and use it in the most productive ways; while in the shower, its like hitting a turbo button on my mental capacity. I starting analyzing things more clearly, and make connections faster and more profoundly in the shower. I have come up with some of my best ideas while shampooing my hair. I don't know if it the scalp stimulation, the comfort of cleanliness, or just the sensory overload of having water all over and allowing the body to be forgotten and the mind to expand, but never ceases to fail. Not only that but whatever physical ailments I'm dealing with, they seem to be minimized for a time after taking a shower.
Sometimes the thoughts I have while in the shower are not ideas on resolving issues, but rather deeper understanding of things that have happened to me or that I have learned over the course of my time here on Earth. It is almost to the point that when I want to understand something better or want get a better understanding of a topic, I feel compelled to get in the shower. It has become amusing for me when I don't understand something I suddenly feel dirty. Now, my psychology background tells me that I am yet another victim of Pavlov and his conditioning.
What makes this funny to me is that when my mind begins to crank up to eleven and starts working so much better while in the shower, it is usually not a conscience action. It is almost as if my mind is compensating for the extra power it somehow gets from being in the shower and starts looking for things to ponder or figure out. So when I come out of the shower and share with my wife this amazing revelation I have had, she is completely surprised by the topic because it is usually very random to what we have been talking about or discussing prior to the shower. Bless her heart she has gotten to the point that she does not ask "Where did that come from?" because the only thing crazier than me coming up with some random profound thought, is explaining the train of thought that led to it. Sometimes I make jumps between subjects that Evel Knievel would be nervous about.
I think the only thing that might make the shower experience much better for me would be to have a big enough shower to have a thinking chair or bench to sit on. Or maybe even a couch or sorts to lay down while in the shower!!! Give me that, and I may be able to figure out a better answer to life and everything than 42!
My challenge to you is to not be in a rush during your next shower and let you mind wander. See where it takes you. The next time you need to think about something, don't sleep on it, but shower on it.
