Diving Into Boredom

A secret ingredient to a full life.

I LOVE talking about boredom.  It’s one of my favorite negative emotions.  I love it like I love a workout or honesty from a loyal friend.  It isn’t always fun but it can be extremely useful.

What do you think about boredom?  I would love to hear your thoughts below.

The first thing you need to know about boredom is it allows your brain to process information.  I like to tell my clients, “when you stop giving your brain information, your brain gives you information.”  We need to give our brains time to process what is going on around and inside us.  This is why I am against multitasking and why I teach kids how to focus. 

You and I both know that hearing information doesn’t equate to learning information.  Learning is a 3 step program.  STEP 1: receive the information, STEP 2: store the information, and STEP 3: recall the information.  Studies prove that breaks are an essential part of learning.  We need time to process what we receive in order to store it and recall it later. 

In many ways it’s becoming more difficult and necessary to be bored because our lives have an over abundance of stimulation and pleasure.  Often times in schools, teachers use the stimulation from computers and videos to grab their students' attention.  I believe that instead of trying to make school more interesting, we should help students feel interested. I know the only thing that controls my student’s emotions is their thoughts.  If kids can’t manage their own minds and create their own positivity it doesn't matter how fun my lesson plans are.  On the other hand, I’ve had many average lesson plans that my students thouroghly enjoyed because of their curiosity and love. 

I love to challenge my students by giving them seemingly boring and difficult activities that teach them how to enjoy school. One boring activity I do with my students is a lying meditation.  Most of the time it just gives my students time to reflect peacefully, but sometimes my students unwillingly fall asleep.  It’s as if their brains say, “I’ve had too much stimulation, thank you for the break.”  Some of my students struggle being alone with their thoughts and try to distract themselves, or when their difficult emotions come up, start to cry.  A couple of them have even been surprised by their tears. Even though it can be uncomfortable to be alone with your thoughts, you need to understand your emotions in order to shift them.  

Boredom is also a place of problem solving.  I’ve noticed that many of my clients are thinking in incomplete sentences.  They have A, B, C, and D, in their consciousness but have yet to follow their thoughts or their problems all the way to Z.   It’s difficult to find solutions to problems when our consciousness is only the tip of the iceberg.   Our brains need TIME to chew on information, see problems from multiple angles, and devise good solutions.

I feel like an old lady leading into my next example, but ‘when I was a kid’ I remember my parents taking us up to our cabin that didn’t have any toys, tv, or service.  The only things we had were a few pop up tents, old board games, a foosball table and a pool table. As little kids we would complain to my mom about being bored and she would wisely tell us, “you’ll figure it out.” We would walk away unsatisfied and annoyed, but she was right.  After around 30 minutes our brains would start grooving and our natural problem solving skills made the cabin a very fun place.  We built all kinds of forts, explored the outdoors, played pretend, made talent shows, and even once choreographed a full rodeo.  As a kid I learned I didn’t need anything in order to have a ton of fun, and in my teens it became a nice getaway for me and my friends to enjoy distraction free activities and conversations.

That brings me to my last point. 

Boredom is the birthplace of creativity!  Think about it.  You can’t think freely if you are busy focusing on everyone else’s ideas at school, sports, home or online.

Sometimes teenagers casually tell me they aren’t creative, but even if that were true the cool thing with creativity is that it’s a muscle that can grow.  Boredom doesn’t have to be painful, it can be useful and inspiring. Do you want to graduate from high school saying that you just did what was easy and obvious?  Or, do you want to have stories of planning funny activities, having unique experiences, going to new places, and meeting new people?  

Much of your life satisfaction will come from you creating and fulfilling your own ideas and dreams. Creativity will open up your world.  It’s ready to fill your life with wonder and laughter.  It will give you excitement, and build your relationships, skills, self-confidence, independence, and individuality. 

If you want to make big memories, get creative. If you want to get creative allow yourself to be bored. Eliminate distractions keeping you from using your own incredible brain. Allow boredom be useful tool instead of empty time.

Believe in boredom.

Next week I’ll give tips to being bored, but for now just know that people who understand boredom are never boring.