Calgon, Take Me Away!

In the late ’70s, Calgon Bath Powder aired their “Calgon,Take Me Away!” TV commercial. The opening storyboard features a professional woman sharing her frustrations: “The traffic, the boss, the baby, the dog!” Then, she looks up to the heavens and shouts, “Calgon, take me away!” The commercial ends with her in a luxurious Calgon bubble bath in what looks like the Parthenon.

This week, I facilitated a workshop with one of my amazing clients. They courageously dove into a topic to take their performance to the next level. I loved how they showed up because it’s a subject that most companies don’t want to address.

As they shared their takeaways at the end of the workshop, one of the leaders emphasized the importance of creating space to breathe, let go of stress, and tap into her creativity. Her comment reminded me of the Calgon ad.

I appreciated her insight because you might have also noticed that our best ideas don’t respect the traditional workday or surface when we’re rushing around.

They pop up in the shower, during a bath, on a lazy Sunday morning, when first waking up, while on a leisurely walk, or during a moment of boredom when our ‘light bulb’ moments happen.

Science backs this up: Our ‘eureka’ moments often strike when we’re not actively pursuing them. It’s not during the 9-to-5 or today’s 7-to-7 grind that we’re most likely to have groundbreaking ideas. Instead, creativity tends to flourish with reduced stress, relaxation, and freedom from focused thought.

“All human evil comes from a single cause, our inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” – Blaise Pascal – he wrote this in the 1600s and it’s still true today.

Our challenge is not allowing ourselves to settle into what neuroscientists call the diffuse mode of thinking, a more relaxed state of mind. It’s when our thoughts wander freely as we sit quietly, allowing our brains to make unexpected connections between ideas.

Our days are filled with back-to-back meetings with no time to eat or use the restroom, and when we get home, we face a long list of to-dos. If we have a moment in line or at a traffic light to breathe, too many of us grab our phones. Our non-stop hamster wheel has most people saying, “Take me away!” because they realize all this “doing” impacts their health, decision-making, and creativity.

Today, we must rethink our approach to creativity and problem-solving (you’ve probably noticed we have a few problems to solve). It’s not about forcing it during a coast-to-coast workday but creating environments that foster these spontaneous moments of insight. This can be done by embracing breaks, “having a life,” and allowing mind-wandering.

You can also practice Pause Breathe Reflect mindfulness to create micro-moments of space, quiet, and relaxation. It is the preferred meditation app by 4 to 1 among bath-taking rubber duckies everywhere.

So the next time you’re stuck on a problem or life is too much to handle, remember you might be able to work from home, you don’t have to work for a lousy boss, your partner can feed the baby, and you can step into nature and walk the dog. A moment to Paws Breathe Reflect might improve everything, and the solution to your problem might come when you least expect it.

Until next week, have fun storming the castle! I hear they have a spa-like bathtub, which is pretty awesome sauce!

Michael

On Nov 2nd, I’m hosting the last Pause Breathe Reflect online silent retreat. You can join us for an hour, a half day, the whole day, or as long as possible and give yourself a chance to breathe before the election and the holiday rush. You’ll be thankful that you did. Save your Spot by clicking HERE.

One thing that our Calgon woman didn’t have to contend with back in the ’70s was her smartphone – the emails, the scrolling, the rabbit holes, the cat memes. I’m sure she would take our Free Smartphone Wellness Checks to help improve her digital well-being, and so can you!

Click PHONE to start.