This time-worn advice has been offered as a panacea for getting out of all manner of ruts and for jump-starting innovation. But how you exactly go about coming up with a creative solution to a problem isn’t always so clear.

Theodore Scaltsas, a professor of classical philosophy at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, points to the work of Jakob Hohwy, author of The Predictive Mind, as proof that our brain solves problems based on how they fit solutions based on our previous experiences.

In an article for Harvard Business Review Scaltsas posits, “If all solutions are old ones in some way, then why are we so good at producing new ones?” Especially since we humans tend to equate our creativity with eureka moments that just occur to us spontaneously.

Scaltsas has an explanation that involves a simple cognitive trick. He writes:

“Although the brain’s solution-generating mechanism is inherently predictive (bringing familiar solutions to a given problem) you can also address an intractable problem by reinventing the problem itself. Doing so coaxes the brain into proposing old solutions for types of problems these old solutions have not solved before.”

To get there, Scaltsas recommends a little visualization exercise. “Imagine ways out of the fix you’re in by imagining that the circumstances blocking your progress are being lifted one by one,” he explains. By getting your mind to generate different versions of the challenge, it’s likely that one of them will stand out as being similar to a problem you’ve solved before. Then, your past solution will surface and your thought processes will adapt it to fit the new problem.

Scaltsas illustrates this by describing a common situation: You are in a room and you need to get out of it. The door is your most likely exit, or a window, provided you aren’t that far off the ground. However, if a new scenario presents where you are on a higher floor and the building is on fire, simply jumping out the window may not be possible. But it will lead your mind to think how you might get out of the window safely, he explains, and trigger thoughts of parachuting. From there, it’s a small leap (pardon the pun) to pull down the window curtains and fashion a parachute to slow your fall.