I’m so bored!
If you’re a parent, I assume you’re familiar with that phrase coming from your kids. And adults stuck in mundane jobs or those spending hours on household chores are certainly familiar with this phrase in their own thoughts.
Parents search for after-school activities and summer camps to keep their kids occupied. Businesses require employees to “find something business related” to do when work runs out. All in the name of activity and production.
Even at home on days when we’re supposed to be away from work or school, we pack the weekends and holidays with projects or activities. And for those times when something isn’t planned, we binge watch a television show or scroll through YouTube videos on our phones, just to have something to do. We don’t want to be bored.
Why is being bored considered a bad thing?
WHY IS BEING BORED SO HARD?
We are bombarded daily with instant access to information, videos, and games. We hear about people staying up half the night working on their side hustle. And how many times a day do you watch a funny video spread through social media? I mean, really, how am I supposed to resist watching a cat riding a Roomba?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking technology or someone’s goals to build a business. Working hard and developing new technologies have great reward. And I enjoy a good binge watching day. Or more likely in my case, a day of binge reading. I get a big adrenaline boost from being able to read an entire novel in a day.
The problem lies in the fact that we’ve become so used to constant interaction and the idea that we have to be busy. We’ve forgotten how to just sit and be still.
WHAT IS BOREDOM?
People use the term bored in a variety of situations. Sometimes, you’ll hear someone say their work is boring, or they are bored watching a movie. While you might feel bored doing certain mundane tasks, this isn’t true boredom by your brain’s standards. The tasks may seem boring, but your mind actively engages with what you’re doing or watching. These mundane activities might seem boring, but the fact is, your brain is still processing all kinds of information it receives from the sounds and images around you.
True boredom, at least how I define it, requires a person to completely unplug, as we say in today’s digital world, both from electronics and from people. Boredom means not looking at a screen of any kind, even for mindless scrolling. It means TVs are off, even as background noise, and that you have no active interaction with anyone or anything.
You are simply sitting quietly in a quiet area, not looking at anything in particular, and letting your mind wander.
CREATIVE BENEFITS OF BEING BORED
Creative work does take time and effort to complete. You have to put in the effort to finish a project and build your business.
But when working on a novel, composing a symphony, or trying to build your online platform, allowing yourself to step away for short Boredom Breaks provides many benefits.
Normally, when you’re bored, instinct tells you to find something to do. And for most people, it takes practice to fight that instinct because we’ve become so used to constantly having something to do. But by allowing yourself to be bored for a while, you give your brain time to do amazing things.
BOREDOM LEADS TO IMAGINATION
When you step away from the computer, videos, and games, and just sit in the quiet for a while, your brain starts to wander to random bits of information. It is often in those moments where you come up with new ideas.
Even when passively listening to a TV show or music while working on creative projects, your brain splits itself between all the sounds and images. You might feel totally focused on your work. But your brain engages with not only the creative thoughts for your specific project, but also all the sounds and images coming from the television, music player, and even sounds around you from other people or things.
When you allow yourself to be truly bored, your brain doesn’t have as many outside influences to process. It instinctively tries to find something to do. It starts to make connections between random thoughts. Those connections turn into full-fledged ideas for new creative projects.
When you’re bored, you spend more time looking at little things around you. A bird feeding her babies. A dog barking at a passing car. The sound of water dripping in the sink. All these images and sounds that would normally go unnoticed become ideas for story scenes, paintings, or digital designs.
BOREDOM LEADS TO AWARENESS
In the midst of a busy day of work and home life, we don’t often spend time thinking about values, beliefs, and the world around us. It’s easy to lose sight of ourselves when we don’t have time to reflect on how we feel and think.
By allowing yourself to spend some time being bored, you have time to think about those things that are most important to you. You can think about the highs and lows in your life. But more importantly, when your mind is quiet, you become more aware of your thoughts and emotions.
Boredom allows you to become more emotionally aware. You spend time reflecting on how you feel about what’s going on around you. Being more emotionally aware gives you an opportunity to consider how you feel, what you’d like to feel if the current situation isn’t good, and what you can do to make necessary changes or enhancements.
When it comes to being bored, it will take some practice. Because we’re so used to the constant activity and information overload, putting down electronics and truly unplugging will make you anxious.
But the more you practice being bored, the easier it will become. And the more you’ll learn to appreciate that time. You don’t need to go on a week long retreat to a remote cabin where there’s no electricity. Start with just ten minutes sitting in a quiet space in your home. Turn off everything. Get away from others, including pets. If possible, find a quiet spot in a nearby park. (Being in nature enhances the boredom experiment.) Allow yourself to stare at clouds, listen to rustling leaves, and daydream.
You never know what creative ideas and emotions your brain has been hiding beneath all the noise.
**What do you normally turn to when you feel bored? What benefits do you think you’d find in allowing yourself to spend ten minutes a day being bored?**
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