Why the best ideas come when you stop thinking
Your brain's best work happens when it’s off the clock. Here's how you can receive your best ideas, explained by science.
I'm sure you have all experienced a time when you have spiralled into overthinking about something - perhaps a simple "what to eat for dinner" conundrum or maybe it was a more complex "how should I say no to a friend without hurting her feelings."
I know I do this often...
It starts with a harmless thought, then it goes into logical reasoning - and reaches a state of solid debate, really. Impressive pros and cons and arguments on both sides.
At this point, you're on a mission to solve this and you're totally disengaged with the world. You continue to spiral into "but what about this"...or "how will this work if we choose this..."
Tired, frustrated, and not with a definite solution...you decide to park it for a later time.
You go for a walk or maybe a shower, relax your body and mind...
...and boom, out of what seems like nowhere, you get the answer, instantaneously. It feels right and that's the one!
Our minds work in the most curious, interesting ways. Our thoughts, how we think, and more importantly how we feel guide us in life more than we know it.
Let's just say it's best to choose wisely what you think (but no pressure - because the moment you focus on choosing your thoughts, we're likely to choose ones we don't want.)
Einstein famously said
The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There comes a leap in consciousness, call it intuition or what you will, and the solution comes to you.
So what are our thoughts and are we doing it all wrong?
In this post, we take a nice dive into what our thoughts are and how we can use our thoughts for living the life we want. Of course, we'll explore it from a science-backed, psychological, and spiritual perspective.
Grab a coffee and get ready to learn more about your mind!
What are our thoughts
To understand why our best ideas come when we stop thinking, let’s explore the fundamentals of thoughts from a biological, psychological, and a metaphysical perspective.
Biologically...
Biologically, thoughts are electrochemical signals that come from the neural activity in our brains.
You can actually measure the electrical activity of neurons in your brain in the form of brain waves (measured using electroencephalography or an EEG) as you think.
Here's what types of brain waves you get depending on the type of thoughts and how much thinking you do:
Delta Waves (0.5–4 Hz): Occur in deep sleep, essential for brain restoration.
Theta Waves (4–8 Hz): Linked to light sleep, relaxation, creativity, and intuition.
Alpha Waves (8–12 Hz): Present in relaxed, wakeful states; associated with calmness and learning.
Beta Waves (13–30 Hz): Dominant in active thinking and problem-solving; linked to stress and focus.
Gamma Waves (30–100 Hz): Involved in high-level cognition, concentration, and brain integration.
Psychologically...
Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel laureate and renowned psychologist, in his groundbreaking work, Thinking, Fast and Slow, talks about two systems of thought.
System 1 (Fast): Here, thoughts come automatically and quickly, with little to no effort. He says it is responsible for intuitive, quick, emotional responses. Think how instant emotional reactions when you meet someone or the feeling you get when making a decision but you're not sure why.
Kahneman says creative thoughts come from system 1. He references psychologist Sarnoff Mednick's definition of creativity as "associative memory that works exceptionally well."
He also goes on to say that it is not to be trusted all the time. You use System 2 to reason and evaluate ideas from System 1.
System 2 (Slow): Here, thoughts or thinking is slow, deliberate, and logical. We use this to solve complex math problems, debate our a topic, or like the example in the intro, plan out a whole script on how to say no to your friend.
So it sounds like biologically and psychologically, thoughts and thinking are confined to YOU (your experiences, your senses, and all the information you collected since birth).
Quantum physics may surprise us…
This is where things get really interesting.
Do we bring our thoughts into form from a flux of possibilities?
Quantum physics is the study of the smallest particles (subatomics particles) that make up the universe. It is wild that the smallest particles that make all of us up exist in a flux of possibility until "observed."
If you're unsure what "observed" means let's just say measured by a conscious being. To really simplify this, let's say you are going to measure your weight. Until you step on the scale and view your weight, your weight is in a flux of possibilities. Once you step on the scale and observe the scale, you cement one possibility into form. This is known as "the observer effect" and it applies to quantum particles.
If we apply this to the mind, we can extend this to our thoughts. Perhaps our thoughts are a flux of possibilities until we choose to believe one and "collapse" them into reality.
Is there universal consciousness?
What is even weirder is the theory of quantum entanglement, which says that two quantum particles can get "entangled" or connected in a special way where regardless of the distance between them, if one is "observed," the other instantaneously knows and chooses a specific form.
Again let's simplify this. Let's say you take 2 entangled coins and give each one separately to two people who you send to two different galaxies in the universe. You make one of them do a coin toss and measure the result - let's say its "heads." As soon as this happens, the other person's coin becomes "tails" in an instant.
How did the coins communicate with one another?
It is not important what they choose to become in this example, but rather that they are communicating with one another faster than light or anything that we know of!
Is it consciousness? It is some hidden energy that we're unaware of? We don't know for sure.
If we are all made up of quantum particles, our thoughts must be too, right?
What this tells us is that our thoughts can possibly be connected or entangled in ways beyond our localised mind. Maybe they tap into a superconsciousness that exists in the universe. Does this also explain how synchronicities happen? Or perhaps, this explains telepathy?
I will caveat that tying quantum physics to thoughts and consciousness is not experimentally proven yet (and it is a debated topic) but personally it is interesting enough to dig into.
Whether you call it consciousness or something else is irrelevant. What we do know for sure is that something exists.
Why the best ideas come to us when we’re not thinking…
Alright, so we know that quantum physics possibly explains why we get creative ideas out of the blue, but how does it explain the timing - why the ideas come when we’re not thinking?
You may have heard the saying
A watched pot doesn’t boil
Let’s go back to the “Observer Effect.” Observation causes a flux of possibilities to choose 1 reality and come into form.
So taking this logic further, we can say that:
The more you “think” or fixate, the slower things seem to happen. You are constantly “observing” your thoughts and not leaving space or room for creative possibilities.
The moment you let go, life flows. Because you create space where there is no observation.
So fixating on things and overthinking actually hinders creative possibilities. Potentially, space and letting go is what allows these quantum particles to do their magic and get creative.
This ties to what spirituality says
While this is also widely subjective based on whose findings you read about, I’ll share with you my perspective based on my experiences and learnings.
I think there are 3 types of thoughts that we have:
#1 Ordinary thoughts (mind-generated, System 1)
Like Kahneman's system 1, these are quick, effortless, and automatic mental flashes, ideas, images, and to dos that occur out of nowhere. They can be triggered by an external event (e.g. when you look at your bed, you get the thought to tidy it up), or by subconscious processing (e.g. call mom).
#2 Deliberate thinking (logical reasoning, System 2)
This is Kahneman's system 2. I'm using this system to write this post by doing research, structuring my thoughts, and putting down what I want to say in a deliberate, thoughtful way.
#3 Creative or intuitive thoughts (beyond the self, flow state)
Joseph Nyugen, a spiritual teacher and a bestselling author, says in his book Don’t believe everything you think that thoughts are divine guidance and that our thinking about them or reaction to them is what causes our suffering.
When you think about your thoughts, you are tapping into your localised mind and limiting your possibilities. If you seek creative possibilities aka “your best ideas,” you need to tap into what Nyugen says is “infinite intelligence” or a “universal mind.”
Tapping into this pool of infinite intelligence seems amazing. How do we do that?
Meditation and being aware that our thinking causes suffering helps us create space between us and our chattering minds. In this space, you get clarity and become aware of creative possibilities that otherwise getting drowned out in your mind’s chaos.
Space creates room for your best ideas
Space creates room for creative possibilities and your best ideas. Space creates room for you to hear your intuition louder. I explore intuition in more detail in this post: What Is Intuition? From Gut Feelings to Quantum Fields and Divine Guidance.
Personally, I find I’m most creative between 4-6am. I’ve been waking up early to do my most challenging work since high school. It’s the time my mind is clear, I’m focused, and I get my best ideas.
I’ve also started getting more and more creative thoughts after I started meditating - such as starting this blog. Creating space between your mind, body, and you allows for creative thoughts untethered to you to come about. Perhaps, they were always there but you never noticed them in the noisy mess that is our minds.
How often do you let your thoughts breathe and see what emerges?
I can’t stop thinking, I find it very difficult. Waiting to stop thinking and get the best idea!! :)