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So why does taking a shower help us think? Or driving a car on the highway to work? It has to be more then just getting blood moving?

Kluny 10y ago
It's just about leaving room for boredom in your brain. When your mind has nothing else to occupy itself, it cooks something up on the fly.
coldtea 10y ago
>It has to be more then just getting blood moving? Why?
- hueving 10y ago
  Because driving doesn't.
  - merraksh 10y ago
    But driving requires focusing on the road, hence taking neurons away from thinking.
  - coldtea 10y ago
    Driving is still being seated and not doing much (even less so with automatic gears). Not a very active, err, activity, so why would it "get the blood moving" that much? I may state the obvious, but it's about the blood moving inside the body and to the brain and such, not about mere movement of blood, body and all along with the vehicle to some destination.
gm-conspiracy 10y ago
Hot showers/sauna do get the blood moving (can be a form of cardio exercise). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4049052/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4049052/ Not sure about driving...maybe road-rage adrenaline?
dyukqu 10y ago
I was going to mention taking a shower too. In my opinion, it's not necessarily about getting blood moving. It's rather about relaxed (a.k.a. diffused[0]) thinking. Let it be driving a car on the highway, taking a shower or spending time in green spaces - both make our thoughts roam freely, thus, more creatively. For me, the more important question is: why & how our thoughts start to wander around when we are doing such activities mentioned above. Is this default mode of human nature? How does our brain extracts "creative things" that we are never aware of in diffuse mode & where they come from? [0] https://abraininitiative.wordpress.com/2014/10/29/focused-vs-diffuse-thinking/ https://abraininitiative.wordpress.com/2014/10/29/focused-vs...
gosheroo 10y ago
>It has to be more then just getting blood moving Yes. I think it's because when walking or showering some attention is kept in the body. This matters for thinking purposes because new ideas signal their presence at an emotional level. Whereas sitting at a desk one's attention is mostly in "in the head" and this is also why lengthy sitting at work or in front of the TV is unhealthy.
rimliu 9y ago
Take a look at "learning how to learn" course at Coursera. They talk about focused and diffuse modes of thinking quite a lot. Shower or walks help you to get into the latter. Edit: see this https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14236433 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14236433

Kluny 10y ago

It's just about leaving room for boredom in your brain. When your mind has nothing else to occupy itself, it cooks something up on the fly.

coldtea 10y ago

>It has to be more then just getting blood moving? Why?

hueving 10y ago
Because driving doesn't.
- merraksh 10y ago
  But driving requires focusing on the road, hence taking neurons away from thinking.
- coldtea 10y ago
  Driving is still being seated and not doing much (even less so with automatic gears). Not a very active, err, activity, so why would it "get the blood moving" that much? I may state the obvious, but it's about the blood moving inside the body and to the brain and such, not about mere movement of blood, body and all along with the vehicle to some destination.

gm-conspiracy 10y ago

Hot showers/sauna do get the blood moving (can be a form of cardio exercise). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4049052/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4049052/ Not sure about driving...maybe road-rage adrenaline?

dyukqu 10y ago

I was going to mention taking a shower too. In my opinion, it's not necessarily about getting blood moving. It's rather about relaxed (a.k.a. diffused[0]) thinking. Let it be driving a car on the highway, taking a shower or spending time in green spaces - both make our thoughts roam freely, thus, more creatively. For me, the more important question is: why & how our thoughts start to wander around when we are doing such activities mentioned above. Is this default mode of human nature? How does our brain extracts "creative things" that we are never aware of in diffuse mode & where they come from? [0] https://abraininitiative.wordpress.com/2014/10/29/focused-vs-diffuse-thinking/ https://abraininitiative.wordpress.com/2014/10/29/focused-vs...

gosheroo 10y ago

>It has to be more then just getting blood moving Yes. I think it's because when walking or showering some attention is kept in the body. This matters for thinking purposes because new ideas signal their presence at an emotional level. Whereas sitting at a desk one's attention is mostly in "in the head" and this is also why lengthy sitting at work or in front of the TV is unhealthy.

rimliu 9y ago

Take a look at "learning how to learn" course at Coursera. They talk about focused and diffuse modes of thinking quite a lot. Shower or walks help you to get into the latter. Edit: see this https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14236433 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14236433