‘Bored to death’, ‘bored stiff’, ‘bored out of my wits’, are some of the phrases that come to mind when one starts to think about boredom. Just thinking of the word brings about a certain ennui and feeling of fatigue.

Interestingly, we have become increasingly more impatient with boredom. We cannot wait for even a second before we reach out for our mobile phones. The idea of just waiting for someone, sitting idly, or just being is almost obnoxious. It is called ‘killing time’ these days and therefore not a pleasant thing to do.

The proponents of productivity, modernization, efficiency, technology, economics, and action have made sure that this feeling becomes even more deadly than it was. If you worry that you may be using this as an excuse, understand the difference between resting and being lazy!

Boredom is Boring

Don’t get me wrong, I totally agree that boredom can literally kill. In a famous Whitehall experiment done among middle-aged civil servants in the UK, it was found that those who experienced boredom were likely to die 30% more than others in the next 3 years.

It is unpleasant, dissatisfying, restless, and numbing. It causes time to pass excruciatingly slowly and can cause mental fatigue even though one is doing nothing. Thoughts of not doing anything cause unhappiness as one finds oneself among all others who may be utilizing their time more rewardingly.

The mid-term effects of boredom are not pleasant either. As bored people reach out for some kind of stimulation, they tend to fall prey to addictive habits like alcoholism, drug abuse, smoking, and more recently comfort-eating and mobile gaming; anything to provide them the stimulation that is being craved.

In another study, subjects were left in an empty room with nothing else except a red button that they knew would give them a mild electric shock on their ankle. Even though the time they had to wait in the room was only 15 minutes, the experimenter found a majority reaching out and pressing that red button, only to dissipate the numbness of the 15-minute ennui.

Not All Feel Equally Bored

Ever noticed how some people can calmly wait when waiting for their turn in a line and others tap their feet, shuffle around, and get immensely annoyed at the delay. Even when they know there is nothing that can be done to avoid the delay, they are unable to tolerate the empty time.

There are two kinds of people that feel more bored than others.

The naturally impulsive people, who are looking for thrill and adventure all the time are more prone to boredom. Nothing that happens in their normal lives is stimulating enough. Such personalities are likely to need higher and higher dosages of stimulation to kill their feeling of boredom. A case in point is how we are still able to feel bored when we have a constant stream of endless content in our hands in the form of a mobile device.

The second type of personality prone to boredom, interestingly, sits at the opposite end of the spectrum. These are the people who are fearful about almost everything that is going on in the world. Falling in the ‘neurotic’ end of the Big 5 personality scale, such personalities do not venture out to do anything new. While they do feel comfortable in their safety, it is not satisfying enough to create a happy life.

Using Boredom to Our Advantage

“When you ask what I am doing this weekend and I say ‘nothing’, it does not mean I am free. It means I am ‘doing’ nothing!

The desire to eliminate boredom from our lives has led us to some extremely dangerous things like the aforementioned addiction to alcohol, substance abuse, gaming, social media, and more. Those who are able to eliminate boredom by replacing it with positive actions like sports, art and craft, volunteering, and contributing find that it brings benefits that go beyond eliminating boredom.

Blacklisting boredom is, therefore, not the solution. In fact, there are many reasons why we should accept and allow some amount of boredom in our lives.

Benefits of boredom include:

• Better mental health in order to manage information overload, attention deficit, and stress. Boredom can allow us to relax and just be for some time. In a manner of speaking, it is a waking sleep that you can allow yourself to have!
• Boredom propels creative thought and enhances out-of-the-box solutions. It allows the gaze to turn inwards towards reflection. As you wander through the lanes and corridors of your mind new connections form that spark the eureka moment. No wonder that many people claim how creative solutions just come to them in a shower or on a solitary walk, or while they are doing something terribly mundane.
• As a species, we would not have reached this far had we not been bored. The feeling of ennui is what propels us to take risks, go on adventures, and try something new. It is the harbinger of new voyages, explorations, and new ventures. In short, boredom motivates us to create new goals as it indicates that we are not doing what we want to be doing.
• Boredom also increases social connections as we reach out to others to connect and share their world.

This is how you can use boredom to gain all these benefits.

Image by Anastasia Gepp from Pixabay

Accept and allow boredom – There are inevitable moments in our lives where we may get bored. This could happen while waiting in line, listening to someone who is going on and on, or some other boring context that we may find ourselves in. In such times, accept the boredom as inevitable and allow your mind to ‘just be’ without agitation and without reaching out for your boredom blaster – the phone!

Create a boring time – To get the creativity going, you may need to create some specific boring time. Choose an activity that requires less mental focus and concentration. It should, however, be engaging enough to keep your mind going back to solving a challenging problem you may have. Walking, just sitting, coloring inside the lines, or knitting are some such tasks.

Throw away the phone – The smartphone is a ‘boredom blaster’. It ensures that you always have something to reach out to when you are bored. Make sure that you keep this tool on the side in silent mode or switched off when you are giving yourself that time.

The Italians call it ‘dolce far niente’, which means the sweetness of doing nothing. The French call it flaneur. It is the art of intentionally doing nothing. Boredom in your life is like the role that silence and pause play in creating a beautiful piece of music.

Featured image by:Shlomaster from Pixabay