On boredom
Read time: 11 minutes
It’s Saturday evening.
I am sitting on the couch, nothing in particular I need to do right now.
In the sleepiness of inaction, I barely notice myself doing whatever it is I am doing.
In the epiphany of the moment, it hits me:
“I am bored!”
Everybody at some point felt that soul tingle, that unspeakable moment of disinterest when we feel bored.
What is boredom?
If you try to Google the word, you will find out the dictionary definition:
“feeling weary and impatient because one is unoccupied or lacks interest in one's current activity.”
Let’s analyze that:
“One is unoccupied or lacks interest in one’s current activity”.
Boredom, in other words, is the act of not being connected to whatever is happening right up there in front of you.
It can be that we simply have nothing engaging with whatever it is that is happening in our lives.
Boredom, as the definition says, may stem from inoccupation.
From being too free.
It is so that boredom is the mind having too much free time.
“HUMAN BEINGS MAKE LIFE SO INTERESTING. DO YOU KNOW, THAT IN A UNIVERSE SO FULL OF WONDERS, THEY HAVE MANAGED TO INVENT BOREDOM.”
― Terry Pratchett
Why do we get bored?
Boredom is usually accompanied by a long yawn.
That yawn represents the brain attempting to grab enough oxygen from the air in order to not fall asleep.
When we get bored, it is the signal of the body that we are not challenged.
It is our body’s response to a lack of occupation that the brain and body can and want to do more than what they are currently doing.
It is an adaptation device that would have been useful a few thousand years ago (making us move around, explore, concentrate on something challenging), yet it is a detriment in a 21st century classroom.
Boredom may be the greatest mechanism the human body has ever engineered.
It is boredom that sent us to far fetched lands.
It is boredom that made us want to create art.
It is boredom that has inspired us to create society, human rights, invent space travel, generate electricity, acquire an information super-highway.
It has done amazing things for humanity, and now we are the ones bored in the classrooms.
We create boredom
Remember that one boring teacher.
The one where you were never unable to make it through a whole class without falling asleep.
What is it about that situation that made it boring?
Is it the way that person talks?
Is it what they say?
Is it the subject at hand?
I would argue it’s your attitude regarding what is happening.
If, for example, you were the same teacher and the same student in another setting your attitude would be completely different (say… having to operate soon on a loved one that is dying).
I know the example is farfetched, but it goes to show the lengths to which our attitudes towards what is happening can change the way we do things, the way we pay attention, the way we care about something.
Boredom is not an objective fact of reality, it is fully relative, depending on who we are right then and there.
“There are no uninteresting things, only uninterested people.”
― G.K. Chesterton
The paradox of boredom
We are bored when we are at our least engaged state of made, yet boredom can make you more creative
When we find ourselves being bored, we go to great lengths to fulfill that void, yet by not feeding junk to our minds, it can lead to thinking about where your life is going and creating long term plans
Boredom may signal the fact that it is too easy, so we change the sport, when in fact it can make us take on greater challenges
We go to great lengths to avoid boredom, going as far as to be shocked for simply not wanting to stay in a room alone for 15 minutes with nothing to do
We see boredom as our nemesis, as our death yet it is the starting line for our best inspirations;
We “die of boredom” and yet there is all the life that boredom may actually inspire us to live and create if we just let it
“The truth is that everyone is bored, and devotes himself to cultivating habits.”
― Albert Camus
What to do when bored
“I would rather die of passion than of boredom.”
― Émile Zola
I would like to give you a few suggestions for what you can do next time you feel yourself getting bored.
In no particular order:
1. Meditate
When is the last time you have actually spent 20 minutes actually thinking of nothing, being focused on nothing, trying to go nowhere, trying to achieve nothing?
If you are like most people, that has not happened in quite a while.
Here’s your chance to reconnect to what is happening in your mind and your body.
You only need a place to sit, a timer and silence.
I will be talking more about meditation in a later blog, but for right now, just try to stick it out for 20 minutes, despite your impatience and you may be surprised at how well you feel in the end.
2. Plan
Actually, start thinking about your life and your life choices.
Where is it that you are going?
What do you want from this year, next year?
Where do you want to be in 10 years?
What are some stuff you’ve wanted to do, or learn that you have been putting off?
Planning in life never hurt anyone.
3. Be curios
Do you know what would happen to your body if you took an overdose of apples?
Yeah, me neither.
If you’re bored, why wouldn’t you actually learn something?
Be curious and find out things that you never even knew would be important for your life!
Note a big distinction:
I said “be curious”, not “go consume”.
Go ahead and use whatever method you wish, but don’t go down the rabbit hole of consumption.
Set a goal for yourself (say learn as much as you can about caffeine) and focus on meeting that particular goal.
Try not to stray too much from the path of your learning.
4. Reconnect
When is the last time you’ve actually talked with that best friend from childhood?
When is the last time you’ve spent an evening and told a person in your life how important they are / have been for your life?
We’ve all disconnected from people we really care about.
It is not necesarly our fault, but now is the best time to have a moment and remember how it feels to be human.
5. Get a hobby
During free times we find out what we enjoy.
If you do have free time, why not try a new thing?
Go play some games.
Take up drawing.
Learn how to play the piano.
Learn how to sculpt.
Dance.
Learn about mechanical keyboards.
Start doing chalestenics.
Or even better, why not revive an old habbit that once used to be so enjoyable for you, but you have not touch in years?
While you’re at it, why not check my friend’s poetry here?
Conclusion
“Is life not a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves?”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
We shouldn’t be afraid of boredom and yet we shouldn’t let it rule our lives.
Boredom is a paradox.
It can be both the greatest and worst gift.
Before I bore you to death, go check Veritasium’s great video on the subject: