Have you ever sat with a problem and tried to outthink it—making list after list, weighing every option, rehearsing possible outcomes—yet the harder you worked, the more anxious and stuck you felt? We’ve all been there. Sometimes, in our search for answers, we actually push them further away.

The candle problem can demonstrate what’s called, “functional fixedness.”

A participant is given a candle, a box of thumbtacks, and a book of matches.  The task: Attach the candle to the wall so that it can burn without dripping wax on the table below.  Most people first try to tack the candle directly to the wall (which doesn’t work) or melt wax to stick the candle to the wall (also fails).  The breakthrough happens when people realize the box holding the thumbtacks isn’t just a container but part of the solution ... which is … to empty the box, tack it to the wall, and place the candle inside the box.

That shift—from seeing the box only as packaging to seeing it as a platform—shows how insight requires breaking free from assumptions.  Sometimes we’re stuck because we keep approaching a problem the same way. A small shift in perspective or questioning assumptions can release the block.

But what about the big problems or life-altering decisions?  The ones that require more than a list or pros-and-cons table, but a way to truly ready yourself to land on a solution that wasn’t visible earlier?

Aha! ~ Clarity arrives not in the middle of effort, but in the middle of ease

Clarity is knowing what you’re truly asking. Readiness is allowing space for the answer to find you. The two together create the conditions for the “Aha!” moment. It’s why insight so often arrives when you least expect it—in the shower, on a walk, while folding laundry, or in the middle of a daydream. These aren’t wasted minutes; they’re profoundly productive ones. They give your mind the quiet it needs to connect the dots.

Science backs this up. Neuroscientists have found that just before an “Aha!” the brain lights up with a burst of gamma waves. It’s the moment when different regions suddenly link ideas together. And studies show we’re more likely to experience insight when relaxed, open, and not trying to force it. That’s why incubation—stepping away from the problem—works so well.

We also know insight isn’t always “ours” alone. We are constantly communicating—consciously and unconsciously—with the people, places, and energy around us. Sometimes answers arrive through conversations, sometimes through a nudge from nature, sometimes through intuition that feels like a download and often in ways we don’t fully understand … but they arrive.

So instead of straining for solutions, give yourself permission to pause. Take a walk, soak in a bath, turn off distractions, or let your mind wander. As the old saying goes, “When the student is ready, the teacher appears.”

Your next pivotal Aha! Moment awaits you in the quiet.

The Aha! Moment Journal is designed to exercise your Aha! Moment muscles and ready yourself more often to receive those breakthroughs routinely.  Get yours here.