Contrary to the name, shower thoughts aren't exclusive to showers. From long walks to mowing the lawn, many everyday activities seem to have the right circumstances to allow the brain to have these little aha moments.
But they also happen to be situations where it's difficult to take notes — turns out that mechanical engagement is perfect for free association, but getting a pen and paper can take you out of the experience.
One TikTok user, however, seems to have beaten the system. He goes by the nickname Shower Thoughts Guy and constantly produces videos that allow him to keep this title. Continue scrolling and check out his best one-liners.
More info: TikTok
This post may include affiliate links.
There haven't been a lot of experiments on why we get random insights, but psychology does have one theory that describes a mental state that seems to foment these kinds of thoughts. It's called the default mode network.
"You become less aware of your environment and more aware of your internal thoughts," John Kounios, a psychologist who studies creativity and distraction at Drexel University in Philadelphia, told WIRED.
At the same time, you might make a decision that will take your life... and one day you will.
The common thing in these activities is they are physically or mentally active, but only mildly — they're also familiar or comfortable enough that we stay engaged but not bored, and last long enough to have an uninterrupted stream of thought.
Kounios explained that our brains typically catalog things by their context: Windows are parts of buildings, and the stars belong in the night sky. Ideas will always mingle to some degree, but when we’re focused on a specific task our thinking tends to be linear.
That Satan punishes sinners is an idea conflating Satan and Hades, as is Satan living in hell. If you're coming from a Christian perspective then...no he doesn't on either count, that isn't in the Bible. Satan is evil because he tempts people into doing wicked acts with loaded promises and lies, thus sending their soul to the eternal fire of hell. He doesn't live in hell, he doesn't sit on a throne and punish the wicked. Satan lies and manipulates to send the souls of others there in place of him.
Kounios likes to explain it with a stack of bricks in your backyard. You walk by them every day with hardly a second thought, and if asked you'd describe them as a building material (maybe for that pizza oven you keep meaning to put together). But one day in the shower, you start thinking about your neighbor's walnut tree.
"Those nuts sure look tasty, and they’ve been falling in your yard."
You suddenly realize that you can smash those nuts open using the bricks in your backyard!
As far as Eureka moments go, using a brick as a nutcracker is pretty lame, but as an illustration of how the default mode network frees the things in your brain from external associations, it works wonderfully. As ideas become untethered, they are free to bump up against other ideas they've never had the chance to encounter, increasing the likelihood of a useful connection. And this guy seems to be aware of that!
Oh, thanks for ruining my day. Before now I never had to think about that. :'(
By now my brain is questioning my existence and currently im only on the 15th one
Oh yeah. If i never searched up im bored during school, I never would have come across bored panda :)
that would beat the pants off of any fireworks show you could imagine, though
The 8th colour? Isn’t it like a purple yellow or something?
Load More Replies...
There are colors beyond the spectrum humans can see. Maybe there are colors other creatures can feel, taste, smell or hear.
I've always wondered what would happen to my brain if I saw a new primary colour that we did not know existed. Would I comprehend it or go into shock?
You wouldn't be able to see it. Unless you turned into an animal, as there are hundreds of colours that humans can't see.
Load More Replies...
Right! Like you're eyes could be "seeing" where these other colours are but we can't actually see what it is! What if red is actually five different shades of colours and we just can't see it!
Load More Replies... One that's always spun me out is how do I know I perceive colours the same as others do? And I don't mean colour blind people. Perhaps we all perceive colours differently, we're just taught from infancy to assign a certain name to a certain colour. But perhaps what I see as red, blue, yellow etc would be totally different to how another person "see's" those same colours but we each assign the same names to them. Short of taking over someone else's body and seeing how they see in some kind of freaky deeky mind swap thing (technical term there) there's no way to know. I hope that makes sense (I'm not drunk I swear.....well a little bit).
It's even the question whether not not we see the actual colour of an object. And then there is magenta... https://medium.com/swlh/magenta-the-color-that-doesnt-exist-and-why-ec40a6348256#:~:text=Magenta%20doesn't%20exist%20because,it%20substitutes%20a%20new%20thing.
While doing crafting, I must have invented a new color of beads; because I can't find it anywhere. I need some beads that are glittery, translucent orange. I've looked everywhere! I guess I'm going to have to make my own.
I'm colorblind. Imagine how that feels :). "It's impossible to imagine a new coulo... nevermind."
My favorite color does not exist yet because we do not have the technology... My favorite color is "neon beige"
How about synesthesia? One sense is interpreted by your brain as another. Instead of being red, white, and blue, the American flag is the sound "AAOSOSKAOAS", the smell of rotten 23, and how the sun tastes. After reading this, I bet some people's brains said "that makes sense".
It would more likely be from either side of our colour/light spectrum; ultra violet or infra-red
i havea friend with synthesisia. they have a color in their head that doesn't exist irl
i have synesthesia and i have the same thing! the color i see “F” in is a weird pink-gray hybrid with like a brown aura??? it’s quite odd
Load More Replies...
Yes, it is. We can describe a "new color" but even if it's a mixture we've never seen before we can never see it with our eyes.
Load More Replies...
Yep. That's the issue I have with Gremlins. "Never feed them after midnight", but there's no feeding window of time given....since, technically ever minute from 12:01 AM until it turns 12:00 AM again is after midnight.
Note: this post originally had 45 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
If you’re a parent to a young child, you won’t know when the day will happen, but there will be one day which is the last day you will ever pick your child up and hold them in your arms.
As a non-parent, this one freaks me out. When was the last time I was picked up? Why was I picked up? Why wasn't I picked up after that?
Load More Replies...
When you're reading you're really just staring at a dead tree and vividly hallucinating. Also the dead tree is tattooed.
If ur reading on a device ur just staring at a bunch of pixels with different colors
Load More Replies...
These are great! They remind me of the old SNL sketch "Deep Thoughts" By Jack Handey
my favorite: When I was a kid my favorite relative was Uncle Caveman. After school we'd all go and play in his cave, and every once in a while he would eat one of us. It wasn't until later that I found out Uncle Caveman was a bear. -Jack Handy
Load More Replies...
Everyone alive today has a lineage that goes back to the dawn of life on Earth. Someone told me that once, I'm not qualified to say if it makes sense scientifically but makes sense logically.
We are made up of the matter that was part of the life that came before us. We breathe the same air the dinosaurs breathed. Going farther back, we are made from the materials that made our sun. We are star people. Humbling and awesome all at once.
Load More Replies...
I’m pretty certain that tiktok needs to go away. At least from bored Panda.
You pass the anniversary of your death every year without knowing it.
Thanks, that was morbid. It's messing with my brain.
Load More Replies...
If you decide not to have children, you are first one of your thousands of ancestors to have made that decision, and you will be the absolute end of a lineage of human beings that goes all the way back to the dawn of mankind.
I don't get the one abt Mr & Mrs incredible naming their son Dash before they knew his power
In the Pixar movie "The Incredibles", their son's superpower is speed (dash/dashing). Superpowers manifest when the child is a little older, not when they are born. So they named their kid "Dash" before they knew he could dash (move really fast).
Load More Replies...
I often think how many you tube channels, instagrams or facebook profiles were owned by people who are now dead.
:( i was on fb recently and i saw somebody who had my dead uncles fb as friends
Load More Replies...
Giving this post a thumbs up! Some of these were quite thought provoking. Great Bored Panda material.
You know your name is just a set of sounds to grab your attention or be referred to
What if nothing existed??? What if just…nothing…existed?!?!?! It makes me panic thinking about it 😰
If nothing existed them you wouldnt be able to panic
Load More Replies...
You are a dark wizard, because you are animating a corpse with your mind and forcing it to do your bidding. It hasn't ceased its bodily functions yet but when you relinquish your presence it'll fall deader'n a doornail.
I think it's just a bit of fun, not deep philosophical musings on the nature of reality
Load More Replies...
They aren't dumb, some of them are just a little obvious or not too logical.
Load More Replies...
If you’re a parent to a young child, you won’t know when the day will happen, but there will be one day which is the last day you will ever pick your child up and hold them in your arms.
As a non-parent, this one freaks me out. When was the last time I was picked up? Why was I picked up? Why wasn't I picked up after that?
Load More Replies... When you're reading you're really just staring at a dead tree and vividly hallucinating. Also the dead tree is tattooed.
If ur reading on a device ur just staring at a bunch of pixels with different colors
Load More Replies... These are great! They remind me of the old SNL sketch "Deep Thoughts" By Jack Handey
my favorite: When I was a kid my favorite relative was Uncle Caveman. After school we'd all go and play in his cave, and every once in a while he would eat one of us. It wasn't until later that I found out Uncle Caveman was a bear. -Jack Handy
Load More Replies... Everyone alive today has a lineage that goes back to the dawn of life on Earth. Someone told me that once, I'm not qualified to say if it makes sense scientifically but makes sense logically.
We are made up of the matter that was part of the life that came before us. We breathe the same air the dinosaurs breathed. Going farther back, we are made from the materials that made our sun. We are star people. Humbling and awesome all at once.
Load More Replies... I’m pretty certain that tiktok needs to go away. At least from bored Panda.
You pass the anniversary of your death every year without knowing it.
Thanks, that was morbid. It's messing with my brain.
Load More Replies... If you decide not to have children, you are first one of your thousands of ancestors to have made that decision, and you will be the absolute end of a lineage of human beings that goes all the way back to the dawn of mankind.
I don't get the one abt Mr & Mrs incredible naming their son Dash before they knew his power
In the Pixar movie "The Incredibles", their son's superpower is speed (dash/dashing). Superpowers manifest when the child is a little older, not when they are born. So they named their kid "Dash" before they knew he could dash (move really fast).
Load More Replies... I often think how many you tube channels, instagrams or facebook profiles were owned by people who are now dead.
:( i was on fb recently and i saw somebody who had my dead uncles fb as friends
Load More Replies... Giving this post a thumbs up! Some of these were quite thought provoking. Great Bored Panda material.
You know your name is just a set of sounds to grab your attention or be referred to
What if nothing existed??? What if just…nothing…existed?!?!?! It makes me panic thinking about it 😰
If nothing existed them you wouldnt be able to panic
Load More Replies... You are a dark wizard, because you are animating a corpse with your mind and forcing it to do your bidding. It hasn't ceased its bodily functions yet but when you relinquish your presence it'll fall deader'n a doornail.
I think it's just a bit of fun, not deep philosophical musings on the nature of reality
Load More Replies... They aren't dumb, some of them are just a little obvious or not too logical.
Load More Replies...