In 2010, Elizabeth Gilbert celebrated her second NY Times bestseller when her memoir, Committed, hit the shelves. Gilbert’s first book, Eat, Pray, Love was phenomenally successful, from its selection by Oprah’s Book Club all the way to the big screen, where Gilbert herself was played megawatt star Julia Roberts. But the success of Committed almost didn’t happen.

After years of researching and drafting the entire manuscript, Gilbert realized that it was terrible. Unpublishable. In her own words, “crap.” Not only was her book a mess, Gilbert herself was completely fried. With no desire to continue slaving away, she quit writing and spent her summer on something completely different: gardening. Some months after giving up on her manuscript, while absentmindedly tending the tomatoes, she suddenly knew exactly how to fix the book. After scraping the dirt out from under her fingernails, she scurried back to the keyboard and revised her manuscript into the bestseller it became.

Gilbert’s time in her garden was more than just a mental staycation. Unknowingly, she engaged a powerful region in her brain that scientists refer to as the “default mode network” or DMN, for short.

Sometimes called “task-negative,” your brain’s default mode network is activated when you’re daydreaming or allowing your mind to wander, without sticking to any particular train of thought. Activating DMN results in a slowed pattern of brain waves that are remarkably like those generated while you’re deeply asleep and dreaming. That means that time spent in default mode is profoundly restful to your brain. Some psychologists consider the DMN as the place where your notion of your “self” is created. This hints at just how powerful and important your default mode may be to healthy functioning.

Even without an actual garden at hand, you can engage your own DMN very easily. Any task that occupies your hands and doesn’t require a lot of brain power will do: washing dishes, folding clothes, exercising, sitting on the bus, even driving. The key is to simply be in your own head, allowing your mind to wander. Don’t distract yourself from your thoughts with television or music; the idea is to give yourself time to daydream. Given that lots of us are pretty hooked on our digital devices and the stimulation those provide, don’t be surprised if you feel a craving to check email or Facebook or whatever you own personal social media obsession might be. If you feel the temptation to distract yourself, take a few deep breaths and engage in mindfulness to bring yourself back into the present moment.

Like Gilbert, you have a wealth of creative solutions locked up inside. By giving yourself the space and time to sort through your thoughts, you’ll gain access to a source of inner wisdom that will boggle your mind.

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