For me cycling does the trick. At one point there comes a feeling of being in a zone, where puzzle pieces in the brain just start to get put together. For this reason I always have a voice recorder in my cycling gear.
I also find cycling to and from work helps process the day. Cycling forces you into the now, you have to deal with the reality of situations around you. My theory is a that this has some similarities to sleep in that it frees up the brain to perform that clever thing it does that makes you smarter. Probably.
There's something to this for sure. I went from not riding a bike in 10 years to doing a 111 mile ride this summer. One of the main things I noticed was a noticeable drop in negative thoughts/anxiety in my daily life. When you're pushing your body to its limits, combating fatigue and pain, your thought process seems to really change. In the moment it's kind of like meditation, and afterwards it adds some perspective to things.
